Just thought I'd give people a place to chat about which monsters you find hard, which you find easy, and why. Figure it's a place to boast, complain, and possibly give out or pick up a few tips.
About me: Full Ash Tail set (4*), swiftstrike buckler (3*), Vile Striker(4*), Voltech alchemer(2*). Currently playing tier 2, mostly soloing, not yet good enough to solo the jelly king, but plenty good enough to solo up to him. I pick and choose my tier 2 arenas, and generally avoid tier 2 danger rooms.
Constructs: most constructs are easy. Constructs in *large* numbers and cramped spaces can be a threat, but anything in those conditions can be - I switch over to the alchemer and go for kiting and short wall/pit abuse. Slow movement + vulnerable to elemental = no problem. Gun puppies and their ilk can be a bit more trouble, if there are a lot of them or they're not the only thing I have to deal with, but the striker takes them out up close pretty quickly, and the alchemer is pretty good at handling them with shoot-and-scoot.
Undead: the little cat-ghosts are trivial as anything other than distractions (though they can get to be pretty distracting). They have a long safe time after they move+attack, and they die quickly to concentrated focus from the striker. Zombies, I generally kite if I can, and that works well on them for the same reasons it works well on the constructs. Handling zombies up close can be a bit riskier. Spectres are a pain but dealable - at least when soloing, when I only have to deal with one of them. The moths (I *think* they're undead) are easy enough in moderate-sized groups (just shield, then unleash once they finish attacking) but can get to be a real problem if there are enough of them that a single barrage breaks through my shield and/or there's a significant amount of incoming fire from other things on the field
Jellies: super-lichens in the bottom of tier 2 can be a bit problematic, and if someone messes up and electrifies a pack of quicksilvers it's pretty much all over, but otherwise it's pretty trivial. Step in, slash a few times, and shield-and-out before their react-initiate-attack cycle finishes. Repeat.
Fiends: I'm working my way through figuring out how to do these guys efficiently. I currently have a bad habit of making sure that all of the little fiends get hit by pit bosses and then all of the yes-men see their boss die. It gets me in trouble sometimes. I'm hoping to some day get good enough at dealing with them that it's a good habit instead. I do enjoy how the fiends seek to trap you with greed. The horse knights, on the other hand, are a serious problem for me. The alchemer is basically useless, and I haven't figured out a good way to use the striker all that effectively either. When I get one, I generally clear out the rest of the room first, and then hope to get lucky while dancing around.
Gremlins: it all depends on which kinds and how many. Flamers are pretty easy, bombers are annoying (especially if I'm being chased by a bunch of warriors at the time), healers go down delightfully fast when I can actually get them away from the pack but can be problematic when surrounded, and warriors are easy enough by themselves, but a bit of trouble in packs - particularly when they're serving as a distraction from somethign else that I need to kill first.
Beasts: chameleons are delightfully tasty. Wolvers are likewise tasty when in relatively small numbers, but start taking a serious toll on my HPs when in largish numbers and confined areas - especially since that generally means they have an alpha or two.
I most consistently have difficulty with the last level of Arenas and the Gun Puppy stage on Tier 2, and Gremlins in Danger Rooms on floors 14 - 18 (The ones where the healers can put up an invulnerable shield) although I once got swarmed by a pack of Greavers (they're the moth thingies, and they're Fiends) and died before I know what'd happened.
I still make several noob mistakes that I'm aware of, but I always seek out Danger Rooms and Arenas so that I can learn to rectify this, and move on.
A big part of my issue is actually my shield - I'm using a Horned Owlite shield, and I'm finding it dying a *little* bit sooner than I need it to, which, especially against the Gunpuppies, can lead to taking a lot more damage than I'd like.
The Fiends can be surprisingly damaging, too... I've been using a Magnus, which is pretty excellent for dealing with them, but you still need to get your shield up ASAP... their projectiles are *damn* fast. I find they really put one's spacial awareness to the test.
I used to have no difficulty dodging the Spectre's charged attack... and for some reason, am almost unable to do so now, which totally sucks.
Still, it drops pretty easily, though is frustrating to repeatedly face.