Oh gawd I wish I still had access to my Reddit account. The biggest things were how to do stats—just pumpIG to like 30 after getting enough STR and DEX to use what ya want.
Another huge thing for me was getting a weapon I actually liked. The twinblade is obtainable super early on and carried me through a loooot of the game.
Another hint was for when I felt really weak but didn’t want to grind forever, there’s a portal to a place where you can just run up and down the map, sneaking and backstabbing dudes for 1k runes each. It’s behind the Third Church of Marika, in the bushes.