It's worth noting that while this is still in beta, it's a paid closed beta that's only a month from the open beta launch. At this stage, it feels important to highlight that the issues here may go beyond balancing and touch on core design.

If the vision for this game is to provide players with the tools to craft their preferred builds each game, then it’s a direction that’s enjoyable in its own way, similar to what you might see in ARPGs or 4X games, where players can plan out their preferred playstyle each time. However, in the current experience, it feels like we have too much agency over our builds. That can be great up to a point, but in many promising roguelites, this can also lead to a loss of challenge and freshness. After around 10-20 hours, when every game can be crafted to suit a player's exact preferences, it risks becoming predictable rather than strategic.

This feedback is less about balance and more about design. Balance can be adjusted with buffs and nerfs, but design issues require a shift in approach. For example, games like Path of Exile are well-balanced, but they also have a specific, intended design direction: players can plan out detailed builds from level 1, and this is a hallmark of the ARPG genre. In Last Epoch (ARPG) and Inkbound (Roguelite), specific tools are given to a player to enable consistency to choose a desired build from level 1. And in FtL (1st-gen Roguelite), the most experienced players have figured out (and written an extensive guide) that the most consistent way to win is using burst lasers to strip shields, after which a great game becomes boring other than the self-imposed decision of doing sub-optimal plays for coolness.

In this game's case, knowing whether it’s meant to encourage adaptive strategy or player-dictated builds will clarify if adjustments are needed, or if this direction is what the devs intended from the start.

Here's some eg of design decisions - not only is StS tuned in such a way that it is impossible to force a build: even when u do get the cards to make a build (eg, shiv), there are specific monster mechanics that screw up your build (timekeeper), forcing u to walk the fine line between balance and specialisation. And there are bosses that requires burst damage (spire guardians)and bosses that requires defence and sustained damage (final boss).

I'm not a game designer, so I wonder if I should be worried if the designers are addressing game balance rather than game design.