So, a lot of folks (myself included) look forward to the stellar quality SYP and SYE posts made by our dear u/DefiantHermit: but our beloved Messiah has a life outside of this subreddit, and may not always be able to do the posts we've come to love, as is the case this week.

So, I thought I'd take it upon myself to give Sir Hermit the Defiant some breathing room and give folks an alternate source of reviews for Ability Enhancements, and possibly some different opinions than of Sir Hermit the Defiant. This may be a one-time thing this week, or I may keep doing it, I dunno. Anyway, on to the point of the post. Oh, also, I'm still fairly new to posting on reddit, so this likely isn't going to be the prettiest thing in town. :|

Agrias (AKA PoorlandeauWaifulandeau)

Rarity: 4* - 6*

While this an acceptable boost for Full Break, adding a small All-Element Imperil and increasing debuff duration by 2-turns, the percentages are exactly that: small. A 30% stat break isn't much these days, and when you factor in the fact that the majority of bosses you want to stat break are either immune to most or all breaks or have a counter for certain stats, it doesn't bode well for Full Break, enhanced or not.

The 30% Imperil is nice and adds a little support for multi-element teams though and the upgrade is fairly cheap, costing only 240,000 Gil, one T4 and eight T3 crysts, so if you don't have better breaks or just really want the Imperil, I won't stop you.

Not too shabby. An extra 50% ATK when equipped with a Greatsword (her own TMR is a perfect candidate) for an acceptable total of 500,000 Gil, two T4 and thirteen T3 crysts makes for a solid boost to Agrias' damage output. If you're using her as a partner/stand-in for OliverOrlandeau & Company, this is a priority.

LKAJFLKASLDJ. This is...wow. The 2 for Divine Ruination makes this an exact carbon copy of Orlandeau's, which is what makes Agrias so valued as a budget chainer, but...it's so expensive that I really don't see the "budget" part. Dark Knight Cecil's enhancements to Soul Eater, which make him arguably the best finisher in the game (for Dark damage and when Dual-Wielding), are less expensive than this! If Agrias is your chainer, and is going to remain your chainer, I would go ahead and enhance this...but jeezy petes that cryst cost. :|

Edit: As u/Nokomis34 pointed out to me, Agrias's true value comes from her ability to chain with Orlandeau in the no-dupe/no-friend 10-Man Trials. Completely my fault for failing to mention that one.

Edit2: As u/FlokiTheCat reminded me (can't believe I forgot to mention it), Agrias' DR 1 is actually quite chainable with the likes of Ashe, Fohlen, Reberta and other 10(?)-frame chainers, albeit at different hit counts than most of them.

All in all, enhancements for Agrias are...acceptable. Knighthood 2 is a must-get if you're using her for damage (which, come on, who isn't), and Full Break 2 is so cheap there's not much reason to not enhance it. Divine Ruination 2....there's no arguing that this is a must-get, as it brings the modifier up to part and allows her to perfect chain with the Old Man, but it's just so expensive. I wouldn't prioritize it unless/until you're frequently chaining with Friendlandeau's and such, but if you are, and are going to continue, using Agrias then you will want to get this sooner rather than later.

Charlotte, The Shield of Grandshelt^TM

Rarity: 3* - 6*

Get this. Not only is it super cheap, using only 240,000 Gil as well as one T4 and eight T3 crysts of the uncommon Guard variety, this is a potentially phenomenal boost to her survivability on any fight where you're not constantly using her AoE cover: while the mitigation on average will be 75%, there are times where Charlotte will get full fucking mitigation. A small GE upgrade to the cover chance would have been appreciated (looking at you Cecil), but this is still a worthwhile upgrade as is. It's a good enhancement Bront.

Hmmm...so this one is a bit of a toss-up, depending entirely on what you want out of the skill: you can either enhance it so that it doesn't need to be reapplied as often, giving Charlotte more freedom of action; or you can leave it unenhanced for some (slightly) higher per turn MP restore Stealth buffs on 9/14/17's maintenance have noticeably improved the performance of Lift Spirits 2, now providing both greater per turn freedom of action through an increase in turns in effect, and maintaining the same amount of per turn MP restore: this remains true even for ridiculous levels of SPR (think 800 )! I can't recommend this one as a priority due to the high cost (even though Healing crysts are hardly ever used), but it's definitely useful if you need the MP restore and like greater turn by turn flexibility The 2 is now most definitely a priority, unless you already have another MP battery in your team or your healer is Luka and she already ate all your Healing crysts, as there is literally no downside to enhancing this now!

This. This is the GE upgrade we've all been waiting for. If you're using Charlotte as your tank, this is hands down priority numero uno. These enhancements make Charlotte's AoE Cover the best we currently have, and are well worth the crysts.

Immortal Spirit's enhancements in JP were great to begin with, but with a GE 20% buff to the proc chance, they're even better and make her ridiculously survivable. If you use Charlotte with a Re-Raiser that raises units with >30% HP, she can potentially "survive" (re-raise isn't technically surviving, but the end result is the same) three separate nukes in a single turn. That's insane! That means Charlotte could potentially take three Aigaion nukes and remain standing at the end of the turn. It's unfortunate that this uses Support crysts rather than say the underutilized Tech crysts, but I cannot overstate the usefulness of these enhancements. I mean, I could, but I'd have to try really hard.

With the possible exception of Lift Spirits, Charlotte's enhancements are superb and easily solidify her spot as a side-grade for WoL and EV. That being said, whether or not you should use her (and therefore enhance her) depend entirely on your team comp and what you need from your tank. If you need your tank to be able to Break Dance, WoL is still your guy. If you need someone to bring AoE Mitigation, you're gonna want Captain Planet's Earth Ring flunky Earth Veritas. But if you need someone who is gonna tank, then tank, and tank some more, Charlotte is your girl. Oh, and MP Refresh.

Gaffgarion (AoE DKC?)

Rarity: 4* - 6*

Just...ugh. I don't care if this uses barely used Tech crysts, it costs an asinine one million Gil and barely brings anything substantial to the table, and only at the 2. 80% ATK for two effective turns at the cost of 30% DEF isn't terribly good, and making Blood/Dark Weapon AoE for one turn is honestly only really useful for the AoE 50% Dark Imperil on Dark Weapon. I don't like how pricey this is, but Gaff honestly needs it to make his other enhancements really worthwhile. Sigh.

Now this is the sort of thing I like to see: a decent upgrade for an acceptable price. It's not much, but it's acceptably cheap at 500,000 Gil and a single T4 cryst. Not much else to say here.

Hahahahaha those cryst and Gil costs...alright, nervous breakdown over. So, while this is incredibly expensive, this does provide Gaffgarion with a DKC strength AoE finisher...however!! Unlike DKC, his Imperil is not only not half as potent, it's also not attached to the skill that really uses it, meaning he has a setup turn to get going. And if that weren't enough, in order to make the Imperil AoE like his finisher is, you have to take yet another turn before that: this means that ol' Gaff has a 2-turn setup before he can start rolling with the AoE damage. So, honestly, I really can't recommend enhancing this, and that's entirely because...

I can't rightly recommend enhancing Gaffgarion at all. He's got some high numbers, and great potential AoE damage against Humanoids that aren't resistant to Dark, but that's the problem: his damage is very situational, and, due to the problems outlined in the review of Abyssal Blade, is actually rather low per turn damage, thanks to the two turns he needs for setup. It's a little better if you're against one target and don't need to make Dark Weapon AoE, but it's still not great.

GilgameshGreg (Obviously the best)

Rarity: 5* - 6*

What's that, Greg gets more ATK the more types of weapons he has equipped? #\JustGregThings. In all seriousness though, this is a great enhancement that helps Gilgamesh reach the 300% ATK cap that much easier, giving him a little more freedom in his build. If you're using Greg, this is a must-have and is well worth the crysts.

Edit: Failed to mention that Weapon Collector 2 makes Greg an excellent candidate for Pod 153. Props to u/souruser for reminding me of this one.

Keeping the exact same modifier, Tri-Attack's enhancements instead increase its hit count, allowing Greg to be a chainer....sort of? I'll be honest, I don't know too much about Tri-Attack as I don't have Greg myself, and I cannot for the life of me find the frame data for this skill or the chaining compendium that I usually reference. So, unfortunately, I can't say much more than "upgrade this if you want Greg to chain (possibly only with himself)". :|

Edit: u/raiko39 has provided for me once again. Tri-Attack 2 only viably chains with another Greg using Tri-Attack 2.

Edit2: Compliments of u/DefiantHermit himself via his SYP post that you can check out here, it would seem that Tri-Attack 2 can chain with Tidus, and therefore should be chainable with any other 5-frame attacks (not taking into account differing hit counts and starting frame delays, though). Ones that readily come to mind are Bran (pretty much all of his, actually, but stick with Thunder Clap) and Rikku's Lightningrod.

Okay, so, unless my math is way off, the 2 should roughly bump the effective modifier of Snowpetal up to a solid 4.6x 5.7x (sorry for the mistake folks!). Oh, and it's AoE. Oh, and it's fairly cheap to cast. Honestly, this is a pretty decent enhancement for a fairly decent skill...but, it is pretty expensive, at a cost of 2,000,000 GIl, three T5 and twelve T4 power crysts. Honestly, this really isn't a priority enhancement, unless you are just absolutely dead set on Greg being a finisher.

Unfortunately with no GE buffs (that I'm aware of) to Greg's delayed enhancements, things don't look so great for everyone's favorite four-armed (sometimes) comic-relief weapon master. His enhancements aren't bad, per se, but they're nothing to write home about either. And that's sad, considering how unique of a character Gilgamesh should be. All in all, there are worse things you could spend your Gil and crysts on, but there are also better things as well. Poor Greg.

Hayate (Oh hey, it's the Black Cowl guy)

Rarity: 3* - 6*

It's so cheap and on an uncommon cryst type that there's literally no reason not to enhance it.

Feel free to upgrade this to 1 and call it good. The 10x modifier looks nice, but because it requires a setup turn to deal exactly double the damage you would otherwise, you're literally not gaining any per-turn damage. Now, if you want the extra survivability provided by Mirage, you're more than welcome to upgrade this to 2: making your damage dealer harder to kill is never a bad thing, especially when you don't have to sacrifice damage to do it.

Literally the exact same as Flame Type 2, except more expensive and AoE.

Honestly, Hayate's enhancements aren't anything too great. The extra bit of damage on Flame Type 2 1 is nice, and the ability to use Mirage without sacrificing damage on the 2 is nice (exact same can be said of Wildfire Type 2), but they honestly don't really change much for Hayate. You can leave him unenhanced without missing out on that much damage, but if you're gonna use him, you should really at least grab Mirage 2 and Flame Type 2 1.

Kefka (That clown guy that everyone loves ^apparently )

Rarity: 3* - 6*

Holy...30% chance to counter magic with freaking Hyperdrive? Hot damn. For reference, Hyperdrive is the ST magic "nuke" (old skill that's been powercreeped hard) that so many of us used to use to carry us through harder content back in the olden days. So that, plus another 20% MAG, makes this a very worthwhile enhancement, even if it does use a T5 Support cryst.

An acceptable upgrade that brings Light of Judgement up to a 5.6x modifier, along with a much needed MP cost reduction. It is very expensive though, and there are plenty of better mages, so think carefully before upgrading this one.

I don't care if it's Tech crysts, this isn't worth it. This is an expensive upgrade for only a 10% better chance for 5% stronger breaks: on a unit that you really shouldn't be letting get hit by physical anyway. Seriously, don't waste your crysts on this.

God damnit Kefka, why are all of your ability names so freaking long? Anyway, the enhancements to Mage of Destruction and Light of Judgement are pretty necessary if you're going to use Kefka : 2 LoJ is needed and 1 MoD is needed: 2 is optional, but really nice. That being said, it's not that hard to find a mage that's as strong or stronger than enhanced Kefka without needing enhancements. If he could chain, that'd be another story.

Luka (Priestess of the Waters)

Rarity: 4* - 6*

If Luka's your healer, you want this. 30% more HP for better survivability and 5% more Auto-Refresh for better sustainability, at a perfectly acceptable price. Not much else to say.

With GE buffs, Priestess Miracle 2 is about equal to a DC Curaja with an All-Aillment Cleanse attached. Even though Luka is pretty greedy with those Healing crysts, this is well worth it, as this enhancement alone honestly makes Luka at least as good as DC Refia if not better than DC Refia.

Those are some might big numbers there, but let's do some math to see what the per-turn healing comes out to: (20,000 (0.5x400 0.1x200)x53)/20=1,583

So at 400 SPR and 200 MAG (very easy to reach) Regenerate 2 is essentially a Curaja per turn....for 20 turns. The turn duration on top of the amount is what makes this so good, as it give Luka so much more turn-by-turn freedom than she had before her enhancements. All in all, this is a solid enhancement that's well worth the cost.

If you don't have Tillith (or, like me, don't like Tilith) or DC Refia, Luka is absolutely worth enhancing. She may not have as much utility available in her kit, but what she does have is very solid, and she's a very strong healer to boot. Even if you have DC Refia, Luka may be better for you depending on the rest of your team. I just wish enhancements had been as kind to my dear Refia as they were to Luka. :(

Queen (The (no longer?) Troll Rainbow)

Rarity: 5* - 6*

Okay, so far GE buffs to Queen's enhancements are off to a good start. Having the same crazy buff numbers as JP Queen, with a higher activation threshold this is even better. Also, Queen is apparently no longer limited to one activation of Berserk per life....I guess. Honestly, I haven't found it clearly stated anywhere what the unenhanced limitations were, but the consensus seems to be that she can proc it as many times as she wants now. The only problem is that this is crazy expensive in terms of both Gil and crysts. Still, if you're using Queen for anything other than just MP Restore and healing, you want this.

Well that's a complete 180. Devastate goes from being a (powerful) much-hated Barrage-type skill, to being a massive ST 8x psuedo finisher. There are, however, two downsides to the enhancements; first off, God it's expensive; secondly, it's only a pseudo finisher because it uses her default attack animation, which is 5 hits with some weird frames. There also doesn't seem to be a consensus as to how effectively it can fit into a chain, so enhance at your own discretion.

Solid upgrades to Queen's utility as an MP Battery, with some extra interaction between it and Bereserk. I know it's expensive, but if you're going to enhance this, you need to go all the way.

Edit: I forgot to mention this, but Magic Martyr 2 costs 95% current HP: she cannot kill herself unless she's at literally 1 HP. Thanks to u/raiko39 for pointing this out!

Edit2: It has been pointed out to me by u/hypetrain2017 that Magic Marter 2 apparently is affected by damage mitigation, which mucks with its ability to proc Berserk.

Edit3^{I'm starting to hate Queen}: u/souruser pointed this one out, it's a bit lengthy (and I'm getting tired lol) so I'm just gonna straight quote them:

It is worth mentioning that Queen can be built for spr, i saw someone that flat out gave her equip staff, she ended up around 900 spr after berserk kicked in, it was giving around 100mp back each turn, at that point i also don't know what her curajas would be like, but with DC that should be a lot of healing.

A completely GE set of enhancements to Justice Guard gives Queen some extra stat immunities, which are always nice, plus the ability to survive one nuke per life when above half health. If only it wasn't so damn expensive and didn't use Support crysts.

Okay, so, first things first: holy freaking hell Queen is expensive. I think Queen is literally the most expensive unit to fully enhance to date. That being said, her enhancements are very solid, and help breathe some new life into a unit that was otherwise dead to rights. If you have no other/better damage dealers, Queen Berserk 2 (coupled with Magic Martyr 2 for easy activation) and Devastate 2 make for a very tanky, very strong solo damage dealer. If you just want her for utility, Magic Martyr 2 is a great enhancement (especially with at least Berserk 1) and Justice Guard 1 ( 2 is optional) gives her some nice Confusion immunity if you don't have Ribbons to spare, or want to use your slots for other things.

HOWEVER! With all that having been said, I don't know that I can recommend enhancing Queen. MP Restore isn't as rare as it used to be, and good damage dealers are a dime a dozen these days. Add that to the fact that her enhancements are so bloody expensive, and I cannot recommend enhancing her: but for those that want to enhance her, I will not discourage you from doing so, as they're good enhancements! So, basically, enhance at your own discretion on this one.

Terra (The Half-Esper Hero)

Rarity: 3* - 6*

A neat little enhancement that's at least somewhat helpful, and super cheap to boot. No reason to not pick it up if you're enhancing Terra (I already did!).

JP Heads-Up: JP just received (9/22/2017) a unit whose TMR is 50% Resistance to All Ailments & 10% HP: add in the fact that she's a Raid Summon unit, and this is a nice, affordable way to pop Enhanced Terra (and anyone else at 50%) up to 100% Resistance on All Ailments while still getting some stats out of the slot. Though, admittedly, by the time we get said unit (if it doesn't end up being a JP Only collab) Terra will have been powercreeped into oblivion and you'll undoubtedly have better units by then.

Solid enhancements to the bread and butter of 6* Terra. A little pricey on the Black cryst side of things, if you're using/going to use Terra, you need the 2 of this. If you want details on what the 2 for Meteor and Chaos Wave are, click here.

Bringing some much needed HP & MP to the table and a neat counter AoE Curaga-ish, Lifesaver is an appropriately priced enhancement, and should be grabbed sooner rather than later if you plan to enhance Terra.

So, should you enhance Miss Branford? Like all enhancements, it depends on who else you have available. If you don't have another chainable magic damage dealer, such as Victoria, Terra can certainly fill that role for acceptable results: and personally, I'm of the opinion that she brings more to the table than Victoria, though the alluring Vicky definitely has better damage potential. Best part about enhanced Terra is that she can chain quite well with another enhanced Terra, and should be chainable with her Trance variant (don't quote me on that though): only downside is those chains are non-elemental. But at a 20-Hit chain, it's not all bad.

Anyway, to get to my actual answer: yes, but only if you don't have better chainable mages. I mean, the enhancements are so cheap with the exception of Unlock Magic and the 2 of Lifesaver, that there's really no risk involved in enhancing her...but unless you're going to actively use her at any point in time, there's no reason to, as only the 1 of Lifesaver would be of any benefit for, say, Expedition success chances. I personally will fully enhance Terra (soon as I have the Support crysts to spare), even though I won't be actively using her in the immediate future.

Edit: u/plastic17 pointed out that Shantotto's 5* will be coming soon^TM and is a very chainable mage, with, I believe, a lot of options.

So that's wraps us up for my first ever Should You Enhance! Hopefully I did an acceptable job and managed to keep the mistakes to a minimum. If anyone catches anything, please point it out to me so I can fix it: same goes for any incorrect information! And if you think I should touch on something that I didn't, let me know that too. Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read this, and hopefully this will serve as an acceptable substitute until we're graced with the next Sir Hermit the Defiant post.

Oh, and to give folks a little more appreciation for Sir Hermit the Defiant, this took me 8 hours to do: and I doubt I put in half the effort that he does.

EDIT!!: Oh my freaking stars, thank you so so SO much whoever gilded and gave me Reddit Gold!! Holy crap!

Edit (3/1/2018): With the recent discovery of cover mitigation percentages being minimum and maximum, rather than physical and magical, I've updated Charlotte's Royal Armlet accordingly.