On a scale of 1 to 10,how bad is your skill tree?

If less than 5, respec.

If less than 8, but greater than or equal to 5, boost!

If greater or equal to 8, spend money on hookers.

40 million is enough for 4 proto suits, and 3 and a half weapons at decent levels with all cores maxed.

Best way to think about it: "what is a mistake or something you simply will never or are unlikely to use again?"

I forget the exact prices but I believe two 30 day booster packs are about the same as a Respec, right? 40k for the boosters and like 38 for Respec? Of course, you can get more mileage if you can cap in like 3 days and just get a bunch of Actives but let's be conservative.

8 weeks of 1.5 is an extra 3,672,000 SP IF you can cap out every time. Say you cap out in 5 days and still play 10 games in the two remaining days, that's an extra 40,000 SP. So call it 3.7 million.

Do you have more skills spent in areas that you will never use or are really unlikely to use again? Don't look at skills that are currently not powerful or things that are currently powerful as that may change. "Gallente Assault sucks! I want Minmatar!" might change when/if Minmatar Assault is nerfed and/or Gallente is buffed. If it is just "I don't like that I have Prototype Mass Driver because I never used the damn thing", that can save one million SP.

One thing I will say: PLAN YOUR RESPEC AHEAD FIRST!

Remember back to when you were a new player and had 500,000 SP. It seemed like so much but poof!, gone. The same thing happens even with 40+ million SP. A suit takes about 3 million of that, a weapon 1.5, necessary passives (Shield/Armor Upgrades, Engineering, Electronics, potentially EWAR and biotics) another 4-6. Take note of what is going away, what you are going to skill into, and what the left over will be used in.

Also, with the left over, don't just go Prototype with something. Keep it free for a while and play around with basic versions. You don't want to go "Combat Rifle is awesome because it looks fun!" and burn one million into it and find out that you don't like it.

If you are unsure but know you will cap out, Boosters are the best. If you ever decide to Respec, having that extra few million SP is more useful. If you are sure about what you want to do and/or are not positive you can cap out, Respec is safer. Pascal's Wager:

Respec instead of Boosters: "If I don't decide to change my mind, I am happy." "If I decide to change my mind and Respec again, I lost money."
Boosters instead of Respec: "If I don't decide to change my mind, I am less happy than above but I still get what I wanted so happy." "If I change my mind later and Respec, I am not so unhappy because I have extra SP to work with."

You can't know if you will change your mind but you can know if you will get Boosters or Respec.

If you wish to respec, plan the living s*** out of it.

Seriously, I made a fully formatted custom designed spreadsheet to list every skillbook in the game and their values, and multipliers. Then compared against what I had and what I wanted, and worked out the approximate time it would take me to get the remaining skills. I realised I needed to respec or I'd be waiting 6 months, so, I did, and voila everything worked perfectly.

Plan or you will quite likely make an expensive mistake.

maxed core is about 24 million if i remember correctly, Dropsuit is about 3 mil. Then you'll want a Main weapon, sidearm and damage mods, thats about 6-8 million if you max one light and sidearm w/ damage mods. If you havent done this already and dont mind using one suit, one main weapon and one sidearm for a few months then respec (less if you use boosters). Otherwise use boosters, then once you get over about 50-60 million SP respec if you so choose.

OP, if you respec, I have a build that can counter anything anyone throws at you. The only downside is that you'll be limited to one suit and three weapons, but once you have this out of the way, you can skill into practically anything.

LT Shanx's #1 Minmatar Assault Build

Total SP Cost: 31.6 ish Million Skill Points

Dropsuit Command -1
Minmatar Medium Dropsuits -3
Minmatar Asault Dropsuits -5

Dropsuit Upgrade -4

Dropsuit Armor Upgrades -5
Dropsuit Armor Plating -5
Dropsuit Armor Repair -5

Dropsuit Shield Upgrades -5
Shield Extension -5
Shield Recharging -5
Shield Regulation -5

Dropsuit Biotic Upgrades -5
Kinetic Catalyzation -5
Hand to Hand Combat -5
Cardiac Regulation -5

Core Upgrades -5
Engineering -5
Electronics -5
Nanocircuitry -5

Systems Hacking -5
Precision Enhancement -5
Profile Dampening -5
Range Amplification -5

Drop Uplink Deployment -3

Weaponry -3
Explosives -5
Handheld Weapons -5

Light Weapon Operation -5
Sidearm Operation -5
Grenadier -5
Demolitions -1

Combat Rifle Operations -5
Combat Rifle Sharpshooter -3
Combat Rifle Rapid Reload -3
Combat Rifle Ammo Capacity -3
Combat Rifle Proficiency -4
Combat Rifel Fitting Optimization -2

Swarm Launcher Operation -5
Swarm Launcher Rapid Reload -3
Swarm Launcher Ammo Capacity -3
Swarm Launcher Proficiency -4
Swarm Launcher Fitting Optimization -2

SMG Operation -5
SMG Sharpshooter -3
SMG Rapid Reload -3
SMG Ammo Capacity -3
SMG Proficiency -4
SMG Fitting Optimization -2

@Derp

No problem, and you really can't go wrong with this setup. The MinMatar Assault has the best slot layout on any assault suit with a decent balance of speed and regen. It's bonus to projectile magazine capacity increases overall DPS to the CR and the SMG, which are arguably the best light and sidearm weapons in game. With Swarms, you'll be able to ward off any pesky vehicles that come your way, and your 1 point into demolitions ensures that you have the ability to attach REs to tanks whilst giving you the extra utility to clear rooms crowded with reds.

The only other weapons I'd recommend you skill into are the Mass Driver for area denial/suppression and the Sniper Rifle for counter-sniping, and with those, you'll be complete. Your MinAss will be able to do everything except scan down reds, heal blues, or turn "slightly" invisible, but these can come later as you gain more SP to branch off into other roles.