maven go for boot, bare feet, nylon worship, spit, and strap on if i'm not wrong, go try loss or surrender, go for eyes/watching too, then go for crawl, i think you had serve option outside fihgt if you progress in main story, i'm not sure, last play is a long time ago, you need to change fetish in option maybe, and some item can counter mindbroke, so maybe that can make you avoid some scene i'm not sure
And for people who can't win in very easy, you add item to any armor or weapon, to get buff or stats, i prefere make stun build at first, then when i can get essence, i go for kyrstal as say early, and go for ice mace, (or anything related to magic or with stun, try different weapon, they all had their own skill) luck or stun are nice, some late weapon are imba even without krystal
about essence, meditate on every essence you get, you will get nice control/heal/attack skill
Still not good? the game is make to "loose" to get porn and exp so go farm, win is side stuff, you win to get stuff to win to get sutff.....