com strength balance?

I think Engineer and Recon are really the best by a wide margin in my experience. I don't play a lot with Strike and Guardian so I'd like to see some opinions on this.

Strike Commander is my default in teams because the radar jammer and combat regeneration make it more forgiving to use near the front, and the extra bit of speed helps it keep up when expanding. You don't really see how many comm snipe attempts you avoid by not showing up on radar, but I think it's fairly substantial.

Recon Commander, I pick almost entirely to streamline openings. I tend to use my Commander as a slightly mobile Caretaker later, and the jump doesn't contribute to that but the low build power detracts from it. But a strong tempo start from a jump plop, or even the modest eco bonus from taking an otherwise inaccessible metal spot in the first minute, can more than make up for its lack of build power.

Engineer Commander is the baseline for when I don't intend to put my Commander on the line at all, which is rare. It's also comparatively strong in 1v1 or small teams where I might be doing a more intensive eco build-out but the base-metal-to-player ratio is higher.

Guardian Commander is niche in my playstyle; its friendly greeting drone does the opposite of Strike Commander's stealth, so I only use it if it's going to be underwater or very much in the opponents' faces, and the latter usually requires a morph.

TMK people generally rate some mix of recon, strike, and engineer well, but guardian com is in rarely part of the conversation.

Personally, I consider engineer com the overall best, then strike, recon, guardian. Strike has regen, speed, and the health to tank an extra raven shot, which makes it great for taking the front quickly then holding it.

Interesting that opinions on Strike so far seem to be correlated with rating. The strengths of Recon and Engineer (jump and blueplate) are overt capabilities, whereas the strengths of Strike (passive area jammer, good movespeed for expansion and running your boi, good HP) are more subtle.

I think all four chassis have solid reasons why I might pick them in any given game, although Guardian is certainly the narrowest niche of the four.

Personally I do not care for Engineer in games where I expect to spend a lot of time on the front line. The blueprinting is nice, and I can see why 1v1 players might favour it, but in teams I find resilience to rotations from other lanes and capability to rotate yourself is most important in the early game, and Strike chassis plays better into these strengths. I would take Engineer as an air player or in a circumstance where I had a particularly powerful early-game composition in mind which was enabled by the blueprint.

Recon is fairly straightfoward. Good if the map gives you value for the jump, bad if you don't.

I would pick Guardian when I am committing to a plan to brawl very early. Mostly a small-map thing.

In most games I play engineer as I have a more strategic playstyle and dont get into com fights early. I don't really use strike. Recon I prefer in lava maps or where jump is needed to get to mexes. I choose guardian comm if it's a water map as the drone can really annoy ships.