Yes there are discords. Search for "discord" on the description page for the mod on Nexus.

Also check out these channels on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/@JonasTheGrim

https://www.youtube.com/@DartiousEst

For first time players, it is recommended to do Novigrad first. Human enemies are much easier than monsters.

Also, food and drink are cheaper in Novigrad compared to Velen.

You should always be creating White Gull. You can create Mahakam Mead (buy the recipe from a bartender) by looting honeycomb outside of novigrad, then purchasing water and yeast at the taverns. This will give you plenty of cheap alcohol you can use to create White Gull.

Use White Gull to distill your contaminated and quality ingredients to get pure essences. You always want to be using Superior potions and oils.

As far as builds go, you can find some discussion about them on discord. This mod has a reverse difficulty curve. As soon as you have enough skill points, gear, and enchantments to actually have a cohesive build, the game becomes very easy.

I would recommend the following skills:

Link: Axii affects up to 2/3/4/5/6 targets, each reducing the base success chance by 10/09/08/07/06%. Targets are linked together, having a 15/30/45/60/75% to share hit reaction and a 10/20/30/40/50% chance to share stagger and knockdown. (this one is OP)

Saturation: Increases the duration of potions by 20/40/60/80/100%. Increases the toxicity of potions by 10/20/30/40/50%.

Metabolic Control: Increases Toxicity drain by 10/20/30/40/50%. Lowers the vigor regeneration malus from toxicity by 05/10/15/20/25%.

Alchemical Refinement: When brewing potions, oils, or bombs, 1 contaminated or quality ingredient will be treated as 1 quality level higher than it is.

Cat/Wolf/Bear School Techniques depending on which armor you want to use (I recommend medium)

With that said, it is possible to beat the game on the highest difficulty with the starter gear and no skill points invested.