With the advent of pets, the game is likely to become easier. Considering that knights can already destroy everything in the Clockworks with relative ease, improving the difficulty is a necessity. However, recall that the nerfs were done for a reason - the developers wanted the less-skilled to have fun. One of the marks of a great game is that it can be played by anyone of any skill, yet still offer a challenge to hardcore players. We need to keep that in mind. Spiral Knights is very close to that mark as it is now; we just need to tweak it a bit.

Onto the balancing.
Beasts
The primary issue with beasts is the lack of a ranged unit; the heavyweight role is occupied by the Alpha Wolver, and the grunt role is taken by the Wolver. Chromalisks and wolvers make up the primary ranks of this family, so we should work with what we have before recommending a new unit. Basic chromalisks, as you may remember, tend to stick out their tongues over about 2-3 spaces, and the spitting chromalisks can spit for about the same distance. They are clearly the ranged unit of this family, but they are butt-weak. So only a simple buff is needed: increase the range of their spit attacks. Basic chromalisks can remain unchanged. After the nerf, the weakest monster in the game has been, almost unquestioningly, the Wolver. They used to track you before and during bites; now they just track you before they bite. This wouldn't be a problem if the bite attack was fast, but it's not. The recommended buff is simple: have all wolvers track you through the first bite. For Alpha Wolvers, the second and third bites do not track. This ought to make wolvers one of the least gun-friendly monsters in the game, as they're supposed to be; if you get to close, they will bite you every time. If you stand far and gun, they will dodge your shots more often than not.

Constructs
As a family, they are remarkably balanced in terms of close-range and long-range firepower. They have close-ranged units, heavyweights, ranged units, and grunts. I cannot presently recommend any balances for this family.

Fiends
This family is renowned for containing the most challenging enemies in the game. They pretty much hold their own in terms of internal balance (i.e., within the family), though there is some debate about their overall balance in the game. If the buffs to the other families do their job, that problem should be taken care of. The first monster I will look at is the notorious Devilite. The primary source of frustration with this monster type is the unusually short warning flash before an attack. If the duration of this flash is lengthened too much, however, Devilites could become a joke. I believe the problem stems from the warning being shorter than human reflexes can account for; our response time averages out to about 3/4 second, but the attack warning occurs over roughtly 1/2 second. If the warning is extended to about 3/4 second, it will allow an alert player to defend himself while soundly whipping a lazy player. Trojans? lol, they're fabulous as-is.

Gremlins
Gremlins are the second most challenging foe in the game. And rightly so; they are essentially the archenemies of the Spiral Knights. They are incredibly strong at close-range combat, but they have a rather glaring hole in their ranged units. I recommend allowing scorchers to fire their ember bolts more often, and placing scorchers in more combat situations. One could even give them status fire based on the theme; they could throw green shadow fire in poison themes, lightning in shock themes, blue ice fire in ice themes, and standard flaming fire in fire themes. And naturally, the ember bolts would inflict the same status.

Slimes
Slimes have a good balance of units built into them, but they don't use them like they ought. They have the jelly cube for a melee unit, lichen for a ranged unit, and lichen colony for a heavyweight. Since slimes are strongest up close, it is appropriate that they all have an effective melee attack, but it is unfortunate that their ranged attacks really suck.I like the jelly cube spike attack as-is; it's the lichens that need the modifications. Their spin attack needs only one modification: each shot in the spray needs to be aimed at a specific (and different) target, and shouldn't be aimed randomly (if it ever was).

Undead
Now this is a curious family. They have all the roles filled, but they tend not to occur at the same time. Kats are the ranged units, zombies are the melee units, dreadnaughts are the heavyweights, and the Almirian Crusaders are just awesome. Seriously, they are the best darn enemies I've ever fought in this game. But anyways. Kats and zombies are rarely seen together in the same level, and dreadnaughts only occur in Danger Missions. The monsters themselves don't need to be balanced quite as much as the monster placement does. To cite an example, Firestorm Citadel would be considerably more balanced (and difficult!) if it was populated by both kats and zombies.

I just had a wicked thought: if the zombie swipe attack was replaced by an attack that lets them latch onto and bite the player, that would add a serious scare factor to them. They should be harmless enough when kept at distance, but their grabbing attack takes about a second to activate and is readily interrupted. If successful, the grab attack allows the zombie to latch onto the player and chomp on him for a bit. This immobilizes the player for the duration of the attack and allows other zombies to gang up on him and do the same thing.

Anybody have other ideas on how to balance the monsters?