I'd appreciate hearing from you Wizards regarding which hexes are least difficult and which are the most difficult. My meager skill at the game means that they're almost all difficult so I'd enjoy some informed opinions.
F is obviously easiest, I'd personally say X is hardest.
Usually, though, you can determine the average difficulty of a particular level (not factoring in sparks, monster abilities, or the arrangement of the waves) using the HP of the first wave and the number of waves there are.
Thank you for your reply. I'm trying to shed the Gemcraft: Labyrinth mindset because Chasing Shadows is a different animal in many ways and the strategies that worked so well before just land me at the Defeat screen. I bet that I could draw that screen from memory.
There's this one map where the wave power is pretty pathetic, but the layout is so evil it winds up being a tricky map anyways. can't remember which one, though...
W2, the only level I've had problems beating even at level 1500. It's the only one where I couldn't just send all waves, had to slow down from x9 to x3 and use spells. This horrifying spiral is my biggest nightmare from this game...
R4 is surprisingly easy. played this with 9 orblets and red/black gems only. there are big mana lakes. i had 4 grade 10 gems and some grade 9 gems for the last 20 waves. not one monster reached the orb. and it was never any challenge at all.