I like the nerf to rally the troops (+ it makes the other fatigue skills in the tree better).
I think quickhands has been nerfed too hard : it needed to be nerfed, but now, you have little reason to use it on anything else than a 2 hander so that he gets a shield one turn out of 2 : it cripples archers willing to equip a close combat weapon, but still allow 2 handers to swap for shield once every 2 rounds.
I think it would work better to have the skill only be usable before any attack is made (or at the beginning of the round, when 0 AP have been spent), and set it back to 0.
The lower tier of utility is very weak IMO :
student : as in every games with this line of perks, this one takes a slot for no good reason. Either allow the replacement of the perk at max level, or change it entirely. Maybe if the level cap was raised a lot. But a trainer skill which would help level other battle brothers would certainly help more.
shield bash : this one is not very useful : you add small damage and fatigue damage to an utility skill. I'd rather have the cost of the skill decreased (fatigue mainly, but AP could work too), or its chance to hit increase.
The added boni don't make it very worthwile.
Taunt : I have not found the skill very useful, but it is hard to measure its effect. Rotation works much better to protect your brothers in arms. Add an accuracy penalty if other characters than the last opponent having used taunt?
Deep pocket is pretty situational. Maybe for some extra quivers, but with the nerf to quick hand, you have little reason to want that many items.
Tier 2 seems good, especially with the nerf to rally the troops, but certainly not worth going through the underwhelming tier 1 (unless you want to go for the tier 3 skills of course).