This is part 4 of my job enhancement overview, and will probably be my last (I type these when I have downtime at work, which I won't have for the foreseeable future). You can view part 1, which covered Holy Cavalier and Dark Cavalier, here, part 2, which covered Holy Brawler and Ninja, here, and part 3, which covered Ranger and Professor, here.

I've said this in my other overviews, but again, job mastery bonuses for job enhancements are minimal. So in global, if you're not going to use a unit's JE as the main job, and you're not going to get any useful basic sub-skills, reactions, or passives out of the JE, then it's not worth doing the JE, because the stat boost is insignificant. On the other hand, if you are using the JE as the main job, you get a pretty decent stat boost out of it because the J11 equipment is better. In JP the job mastery bonuses seem higher, so this may eventually change in global.

Anyway, let's proceed. In the tables below, if an ability is changed, I'm only going to list changed stats. So for example, Weapon Crush -> Severed Blade. They're identical in damage, cost, area, and duration, so I'm not going to list that. I'm only going to list what is changed; but if I specifically spell something out in the original, and not in the new skill, then it means that the new skill doesn't have that (ex: Guard Stance gives PDEF, MDEF, healing, and evasion, whereas Diamond Formation trades all of that for Slash Resistance).

For stat boosts, I'm only going to list the real major ones, like MOVE 1 or built-in resistances. If you're interested in seeing the exact stat differences, you can play around with the unit planner here (you'll need to use the Japanese version for now).

I took this information from the global version of the AlchemistcodeDB and also compared with with the Japanese AlchemistcodeDB, just to see what kind of changes we might be seeing in the future.

I bounced some of my ideas off of the players in the Japanese Discord channel, so a huge thank you goes out to them.

Martial Master

The Martial Master JEs specialize in doing extra damage to a particular type of unit. As a whole, the Martial Master JEs aren't that great in global - they're better against a particular enemy type, but can be worse otherwise. Since these JEs got buffed in JP, I'll list the new JP values, as well.

Beast

Specialized against beasts.

Characters: Olga, Silma (when I have a character's name italicized, it means that the character will eventually get this job enhancement, but does not have it yet in global, or that the character is not available yet)

It's important to note what monsters and beasts are here. Monsters are basically everything that isn't of the human, demon, or machine type; so that would be Vermin, Beetle, Kaiser, Familiars [AKA Dragons], Mandragoras, Lizards, Ratties, Wolves, and later Blobs/Oozes, Minotaurs, and Griffins. Beasts are a smaller sub-set within monsters. They include Ratties, Wolves, and later Griffins and Cyclops (notably, Cyclops are the only creatures to my knowledge that are beasts but not monsters). Anyway, Monsters encompass a good number of enemies, whereas Beasts are very few.

I want to point out that Anti-Demon Lance does NOT do extra damage to demons... so it's a very silly name. Anyway, you're seeing double the jewel cost for a 40% DMG boost to monsters and a 20% DMG boost in general (at level 20). At base, Martial Artists get ~28 jewels per hit, and start with ~40 jewels. That makes Anti-Demon Lance unreasonably expensive for a single target attack. Luckily, this class will eventually get buffed to reduce the cost of Anti-Demon Lance and to increase its general damage. Cedarian Beast trades out bind for 80% to Beasts and 5% attack at level 20. Given that there are so few beasts at this point, and that ratties and wolves are very seldom a threat, this isn't much of a boon. I can't speak for how threatening Griffins and Cyclops are in Japan.

I'd be weary about picking up this JE at the moment unless you want the stat boost (and you're running Martial Artist as Olga's main). I just don't think it's going to be worth it until they reduce the costs.

Dark Tinker

Specialized against machines.

Characters: Mei Fang

Anti-Tech Palm is a damage upgrade to Destructive cost for 13 jewel cost ( 7 in JP), and Cedarian Dark Tinker trades out your Bind attack for what is essentially just a normal attack that's strong against machines. Anti-Tech Palm is single target and Cedarian Dark Tinker is a spear, so the class' usefulness seems more suitable to boss machines like the AJ7000 than towards taking out machine swarms. That said, boss machines are fairly common, so Mei Fang will be very useful against these enemies.

I'd like to note that Mei Fang is an SS tier character in Japan, and it's recommended to run her Martial Master job as her main. That said, Dark Tinker isn't a bad contender for your free equipment/token tickets.

Survivor

Specialized against humans.

Characters: Tethys, Toritoh

There are a lot of things I like about Survivor: humans are a very common enemy type in the game (and almost exclusively so in PvP), Funeral Gun doesn't cost any more than its normal Martial Master countpart (unlike the other JE's counterparts, making it a 100% upgrade), and Burial Gun is in my opinion a better ability to upgrade than Destructive Palm; BUT the damage on these skill upgrades isn't as high as with Beast's and Dark Tinker's upgrades, both in terms of level scaling and in additional damage to their enemy types. In fact, Cedarian Survivor does a good deal less damage to non-human enemies than the Cedar Slash Flicker that it replaces. You also still lose Bind on Cedar Slash Flicker.

If you care about Japan's tier lists, both Toritoh and Thetis were A-tier when they had these JEs (they did just get bumped up to S-tier, but it had nothing to do with the Survivor JE). Toritoh is a limited unit, so few people are going to have her at the LB15 necessary to unlock Survivor, and there are better water units to invest in at the moment than Tethys, who won't be farmable for some time. Therefore, the upgrade may not be worth your resources.

Dragon Cavalier

The Dragon Cavalier upgrades are pretty good. So far as I can tell, the skills didn't receive any buffs in JP, so what you see here is how things should stay (skill-wise).

Garuda

Specialized in jumping (height).

Characters: Aruba, Spica, Zahar

First of all, Garuda and Vritra are very similar. Garuda specializes in height jumping, whereas Vritra, which I'll discuss next, specializes in range jumping. Both of these trade out the basic "High Jump" level 1-5 for a basic jump leap (single target), jump strike (AoE), and a 150% JUMP ATK charge-up. They also both turn Grand Cross into a ranged jump skill (with cast speed) and make Sky High effect all of their jump skills. Just to get this out of the way - the damage scaling for the Grand Cross replacements goes from 1.6PATK to 1.4PATK scaling, but the skill damage is boosted on all but Rudra. This is still a significant damage buff for Garuda and Vritra.

With Garuda, if you are at a different altitude on the map, Garuda shouldn't have any problem hitting the opponent. This isn't as useful as Vritra or Rudra, which give a 3-movement class some much needed range or mobility, but to compensate, Garuda hits harder than the other Dragon Cavalier JEs. It's also worth noting that Garuda's jumps are ever so slightly slower than Vritra's. I also want to point out that in the base Dragon Cavalier, High Jump levels 4 and 5 have 4 range, whereas Garuda Leap and Strike have 3, so you will lose a little bit of range with this upgrade. Still, it's a worthwhile tradeoff. If you throw a hat on Garuda (or Vritra), they'll be able to Charge Up and use their leap/strike next turn for some massive damage. Spica can even use Garuda Cross on turn 2 after a charge up, but she must be at level 85 with her Master Ability and a 5* hat.

I'd definitely run Garuda on Spica. Aruba's PATK isn't nearly as good as Spica's, so while I think he could still run this job, I'm not going to go out of my way to get him there.

Vritra

Specialized in jumping (range).

Characters: Rosa, Crete

Vritra is a great long-range JE. What's also cool is that the two units who get it: Rosa and Crete, can run Ninja/Assassin passives that will give them 1 MOVE and JUMP, which essentially extends their range even further. Rosa eventually gets the Black Tortoise Ninja JE, meaning you can run that as her main, giving a base speed of 5, or 6 with her passive, and then slap on Vritra as a basic, in order to get a get what is basically a range 11 attack. That's pretty useful for certain maps where you need to snipe a foe from pretty far away with a high agility unit. So when she gets Black Tortoise, I'd definitely run that. In global, I think she can switch off depending on what she needs: go with Ninja if you need mobility/speed, or Vritra if you want to hit harder and need more health. Vritra main does give you Vritra Cross, which is nice, but unlike Spica, she won't be able to use it on turn 2 without help from a Merchant.

Rudra

Specialized in teleportation.

Characters: Zangetsu, Longinus, Celliers, Ramses, Gerald

Rudra is all about mobility. You get something pretty similar to Noctis' Point Warp, except instead of healing, it removes statuses. The unlimited height difference is huge here, because you can get past maps that have large mountains in addition to getting around walls/obstacles. Rudra Break isn't terribly exciting - you're spending a little more for better range and more attack power, although it's useful if you need to silence an enemy, as Magic Forbidding Spear was. Finally, Vritra Cross will teleport you to the enemy, and then perform a weaker grand cross (1.4PATK vs. 1.6 PATK) for a reduced jewel cost. Keep in mind that the height on Grand Cross is only 2, so you can't just teleport at very differing altitudes like you can with Rudra Cure.

Unfortunately the only people who have Rudra right now are Zangetsu and Longinus. Zangetsu has pretty bad agility (especially if you're running Single Blade). Rudra is good on Longinus, but most people probably don't have her at LB15.

Closing

:Edit: /u/Cobalt_721 mentioned that Gumi just today (1/18) announced a JE challenge board for Mei Fang and Rosa. Since those give tokens/equipment, the best pick for your selector tickets would be Garuda.

This set of JEs is definitely better than our last set (Ranger Professor). You have some pretty nice options here on some high tier units that are good long term investments. Since the Martial Artist JEs are more specialized, and not as good in all situations like the Dragon Cavalier ones are, I would personally use my tickets on either Garuda or Vritra (and then you should farm the other one). Rudra, as good as it is, isn't really worth it for Zangetsu (his agility is just too low), though it's a strong consideration if you have LB15 Longinus. If you don't feel like doing one of the Dragon Cavaliers, then my next choice would be Dark Tinker for Mei Fang. Since she's farmable, most people should be able to get her to LB15. I give Vritra a slight edge because I prefer the longer range over the height (even if Garuda does more damage). I think the value of Rudra is a little higher if you don't own Noctis, since he can fulfill a similar infinite height teleport role. Garuda is great when the range isn't as important and you just want to hit like a truck.

My order would be Vritra > Garuda > Rudra (only if you have Longinus) >>>> Dark Tinker > Survivor >> Beast