How do you know which points you spend help your character? Discovery?

There's a seperate bow slot/ranged slot. Bottom right, IIRC.

Yeah, I was wondering wy Q didn't work for me. I think dual + bow means no bow, but sword/board bow vs melee is determined by your range.

Which still is a retarded system.

Incase you were wondering the "Swap Weapon" key is now recoded to now change targets. I would avoid having a ranged weapon equipped unless you plan on using the Point and Click mode, as currently you automatically use your ranged weapon unless you are close to your current target, who will be set at random per encounter and has nothing to do with what monster is closest or attacking you currently. You will attempt to throw over their heads instead of engaging them in melee.

I'm still trying to figure out if putting points into the various armor types makes your armor degrade slower, or increases the amount it gives you. So far I haven't noticed a use to putting points in. Same with sneak, as well as a few others. I really hope they release an updated guide or something. This place seems to be the only one with any real information on it.

I was happy to finally beat the druid ascension battle, but the only skill I got (I think) was channel. Does channel reduce cooldowns or something?

Channel provides Out of Combat Mana Regen, but seems to be broken for some classes.

Out of combat combat? Might matter for a high mana toon, but I am a zaur without special intelligence. My mana pool is low enough that it regenerates in any case between monster packs.

I would have liked it too to be In Combat Regen, but alas...

Scout isn't required for switches anymore as far as I can tell, so there's no need to stat it unless you want the better minimap coverage.

What class gets identify? I figured it was just a leftover from pre-MMXII since I haven't seen it naturally yet.

I don't recommend ever statting weapons, except to get them to level 1. Even then, it's best to stick with one weapon for the most part, or two if you're a rogue. Weapons only give a parry bonus in the main hand, not offhand/ranged. Chance to hit is (partially) based off of weapon skill, regardless of what hand it's in. Lockpick and disarm traps level like weapon skills, but very slowly. I personally never stat them, and just use lockpicks on locks that are too hard. Later on you'll have so much money that bargain won't matter, so I don't bother with that. Spells are a good place to dump points if you're going caster. Channel is also good if you do a lot of casting. Really, I save almost all my skill points for my favored diabolic skills, and just put a point here and there into other skills as needed.

You have to have at least one point in the bow skill to use bow weapons. Same with throwing. Past that you can equip ranged weapons no matter what your other equipments are. Weapon swap is automatic now, there is no way to manually swap afaik.