I’ve been experimenting with my engineer squads, taking some with +35% health, and some others with the 40% extra resources with 200% health from medkit perks. On everyone I take + 40% build speed and the greater chance to survive being downed perk (10 pts). I’m happy with both the health builds, but not entirely convinced which one is optimal, I feel it’s situational.
All the engineers i have in my regular squads have +35% health as I want the suvivability. If I can keep enough engineers alive in my actual engineer squads then I feel I don’t need the 40% resources as different engineers can build the different structures up to your squad limit. There are situations where both have been advantageous, Being able to resupply a well setup gun is nice if you’re the last member of your squad. I guess you have to think about how you want to play them specifically. I tend to play my engineers at range, with +35 health you can survive some shots and reply potentially winning the engagement, with the +200 health you can bring yourself back to full health (with a backpack), then potentially focus wherever you were shot from. There is no option to take snipers in engineer squads, which I think might be a nice idea to somewhat counter those snipers taking you out when you get on your MG nest or AA gun.
For me: 50 % Build speed is top priority, all over the board.
Can’t stand to use a engineer without that perk.
40% extra resources, situtional and useful for engies in MG-squads, or premium engineers who can build a lot of stuff. You can combine that with +200 health medpack perk.
Vitality is always a wise choice however, regardless of class.
Dont value helth generation that much since you can’t be healed 100 % anyway.
Weapon handling perks are very different for me.
For BA-using engineers I prefer Bolt-Action fire rate speed.
50 % Throwing greande perk is very common for my engineers since I put explosive packs in their inventory for the most part.
50 % Chance of getting downed can, as you said, be useful.
The +40% resources is useful in 2 squads particularly:
mg squad. If you build rallies, some sandbags, an ammo box… your engy won’t be able to build the big mg without the perk.
mortars squad. Obvious why. Moar ammo boxes, moar bombs.
One might think it would be useful in pure engy squad as well because they can build at guns and aa… but you merely need to switch to the next engy when out of resources.
For the rest, building speed is a must like you said.
For yellow perks it’s either vertical recoil (engies in assaulters or close quarter squads) to use semis, or fast bolt action cycling + the lil perk that cost 2 point. For everyone else.
As for the red perks, for those not using more resources, it’s either more health per medpack or more max health, depending on if I feel like giving engies big backpacks or something else…
It’s all up to the individual player. But all my engineers are tier 1 (to be cheap with bronze) with 40% more resources, 50% build speed, reload speed, and both stamina perks.
I use my engineers to flank, so the quicker they can get around to the objective, the better.
Health is not important as long as I’ve placed my rally.