There's also "decent challenge" which is between easy pray, and even match. Although the higher up you go in evel, the harder the enemies get, so at some point EPs could smack you around just as easily as VTs do at level 1.

Also, I don't totally agree scott about ITs, true it IS a bad idea to take on ITs even in a party (especially since you don't know exactly how much higher they are in level than you) most most parties consistenly take out ITs anyway. As long as you're smart about it you should be okay. Though it is generally better to take on VTs than ITs, because though VTs give less EXP, you can kill them much faster, making your exp per hour higher than it would be killing ITs.