also to be able to find people to play with before entering the game world would be amazing, maybe a general chat?

For the moment the best way to play in a party is to go to the official Discord of the game and ask for people willing to play with you. Exchange your Wolcen tags, the one displayed at the tob of the social panel (the button next to the one that looks like a scroll is located at the bottom right side of the screen). And then you just type the name of people that you want to add to your friendlist so you ll be able to invite them in your party.