What Kim posted is traditional, and most of us with a conservative bent (in a good way - we want our products to be stable and durable) would agree.
However, there seems to be room with modern processes, including torrefication, to experiment.
Hello, I am certain that their are a large number of AZ Members who build their own cues. I have not seen a thread to date where everyone posted photo's of their work. This thread could kinda be used as a trade mark index of cue makers that post...
forums.azbilliards.com
Check out post # 367. This guy is really prolific and makes a lot of very attractive "oddball" cues or using unique materials.
If you've ever intentionally broken thin sections, i think BE & striped are weaker or at least respond less uniformly in compression, and will "behave differently" than straight grain. But striped sure can be spectacular. FWIW, "torrefied" wood is also weaker than wood that has not been torrefied, but in the size of a cue shaft, it seems to be strong enough. It is reputed to be more stable. Given the mass (weight) loss, it probably has less deflection, but i have not messed with it yet.