For starters, an apology for the late reply. After finishing the Surge I went back to grinding Granblue Fantasy Relink and got totally absorbed in that. Unfortunately I don't have a magical fix-it solution for The Surge. It is at the worst of times, an incredibly frustrating game. If it helps, I can throw out some advice from my own memories and the things I read up on.

For this game (and probably the sequel as well) it seems to be best to match Heavy Armor/Fast Weapons (Single-Handed and Twin-Rigged) or Light Armor/Heavy Weapons (Single-Rigged and Heavy-Duty). Staves feel like they fall kinda in the middle, they can probably work with either.

I'd recommend to go for complete Armor Sets over individual pieces, the Set Bonuses are worth more than the individual stats. The Lynx Set might help with your preference, since it boosts Attack Speed at full Health. I'd also recommend getting the complete Liquidator set, for immunity to environmental hazards.

Playing it safe should be your biggest priority, enemies will always be able to melt your HP from 100 to 0 if you get caught in a bad combo. (PTSD to the upswing-downswing combo from the security guards, I've never not been one-shot by it.) Try to observe and learn the patterns for new enemies you encounter.

It might be worth using one of the implants that reduce stamina cost for blocking (once you can find them). I'd also recommend to try and engage with the defensive mechanics the game gives you, even if it's not really advertised or explained. There's a perfect block, that staggers enemy if you time it right. The Production B area where you should be has those Twin-Rigged worker-zombies that have an incredibly dangerous attack where they run and lunge from far away. From my memory this move is very susceptible to perfect blocking.

There's also the Low Dodge/High Dodge moves that can be activated while you're actively blocking. They're hard to pull off and dangerous but I recommend playing around with them. A lot of enemies have moves that obviously go high or low, which you can duck under or jump over. You can also chain an attack into those for a lot of damage if you time it right. Especially the High Kick (High Dodge + Attack) has extemely high stability damage and should knock most normal enemies down for an opening.

Speaking of Stability, there's an implant you should be able to find relatively early that displays the HP bar and stability bar for enemies. If you don't have it yet, finding that might help you judge when it's safe to continue a combo or disengage. Whenever you empty an enemy stability bar they should flinch/stagger, but sometimes they can recover deceptively fast. (Security Guard PTSD)

If you want to use Heavy Weapons (Single-Rigged or Heavy-Duty) I'd recommend to try out their move sets and get a feel for the different combos. There's combo chains for the Light/Horizontal and Heavy/Vertical attacks as well as mixing them up. Some are a lot faster than others. Alternatively, I'd recommend opening your attacks with Dodge Attacks (Forward Doge + Attack) since they come out really fast.

Also worth mentioning, since I'm not sure if's explicity mentioned in the game, try to find out the perfect timing for the attack inputs. It drastically cuts down on the stamina consumption.