[2021] I feel like the game funnels you too much into the strength perk tree.

1: You can find or buy better tools completely irregardless of whether or not you have the Miner 69er perk. Yes, It can give you them faster, and yes it bolsters damage; But it's not necessity. It's a choice driven by impatience.
2: Likewise to the above, A choice driven by impatience. You can absolutely harvest enough without motherload to succeed- Mother lode at max rank is 100% increase. So, spend 2x as long and you'll reach the same quantity.
3: You can find recipes for all the food- It's a choice to want to be able to cook your own food instead of scrounging around while looting or buying it at the trader.

And in all three cases, you can buy a rank in the skill without any additional points in strength; with the cooking one teaching you basic recipes and teas which is more than enough. I've never put more than a single point in the cooking skill. Meanwhile, Miner 69er and mother lode both have a significantly lower cost to entry than any other skill, allowing you to max them out by strength rank 7; and getting 4/5 with strength 5. Even just 2 additional points in str lets you get 3/5.

But again, It's not necessary. You can succeed without them, and you can succeed with them. And, in the end, you aren't really meant to only put points in a single tree to the absolute exclusion of all other trees- You may want to focus on one to reach the higher levels of it's benefits, but, that doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't put points in other trees from time to time.

Edit: And to be clearer here, If you were meant to only choose and work with one specific tree to the exclusion of others, It would be excluded on the level of "when you buy a point in one of the trees, it locks the other 4 out"

Originally posted by Roberts3141: I agree the Strength tree is OP. I,m not sure if its a good or bad thing but I will say I can't imagine any build in 7 days to die where I wouldn't end up putting at least some points in the strength tree.

It's opinion based, though. There's also people who think doing anything without the INT tree is abysmally awful. And others that think Perception is unskippable. And others who adore Fortitude and won't play without it (I'm a fortitude gal myself.)

And..Really, that's kindof the purpose of varied skill trees, isn't it? You might put some points in other trees, but, speaking generally, there's going to be one of the five that speaks to you and that you prefer over the others.

Do you really want every skill tree to be exactly perfectly balanced so there's no real difference in choosing one over the other, Something that could really only be achieved by just removing trees entirely? Every skill to be homogenized to the point that there's no uniqueness; again, something that could really only be achieved by removing skills entirely and making the effects inherent to the player? And if you really do want that, Why? For what reason?

Cause, I kinda don't want that. And I doubt you do either. The little quirks and differences are what make the trees special.