auto switch modes?

Sometimes when I play, certain monster types are easy to kill, and if they get too close, they do a small amount of damage to me. Other times, they kill me without getting close... does anyone know why this happens?

Thanks,
Wrayk

hm... you forgot to switch off Hard Mode?

Edit: for more detailed questions I am willing to give more detailed answers

Certain monster use certain skills. Other monsters use different skills. Some skills are long range, some are short range, some are adjacent, skills are everything in between in range. Some monsters attack at long range, and some attack at adjacent range, and every range in between.

Provide details for a more useful response. Name the creature, the area, and the skills used if you know them. Also explain how you are defeated if you are able to determine it.

Generally, in 'what killed me?' situations, you should be able to check Damage Monitor. If you don't have it on the screen, turn it on in the Interface tab of the options panel. It lists the skills that monsters used on you just before you died. Note that groups of the same monster type in the same area can still have different composition in terms of their professions.

You'll have to be more specific to get more details.

The crimson monkeys in the Rata Sum area... in my 1st exploration of the area, they were incredibly deadly, taking off ~150 health with one attack, not even a melee attack. The next day, in the same area, battling the same groups of crimson monkeys, I could get whacked up close and lose only ~40 health. I play only with henchies, and I've never intentionally turned on HM (I don't know how).

you must have bought better armour

There's more to it than just group composition (was it exactly the same group or were they just in the same place). iirc the Rits have Splinter Weapon, so if your party is balled up the healers tend to move rather than heal/prot you, and so you die. Familiarise yourself with the key skills that each mob uses and react accordingly. If there is a lot of AoE, flag the party out so they don't all get hit. If there is something that deals a ton of damage, pre cast Prot Spirit and have someone take the first big hits. If there is a lot of pressure, pre cast spirits (if you have them).

The difference here is likely whether there was a rit among them. The Spiritcallers use Splinter Weapon on all the attackers very early in the battle. If there was no Spiritcaller, or he was dead before getting Splinter spread around, you would see a big difference.

What's a Rit? And how do you know what skills the mob uses, since they're often composed of more than one type and you can only click on one at a time?

Wrayk

Rit = Ritualist.

Skills can be found in a few ways. The easiest way is to just look them up on GuildWiki, but this isn't of much use unless there's one specific mob you're looking for (it would be pointless to look up every foe type in the game). You can watch the damage monitor to see whats hitting you. If you take damage from dervish skills, then there's almost certainly a Dervish in the group. Lastly, once your battlefield awareness gets better, you'll be able to check what foes use which skills more quickly by watching their skill activation. Making it bigger helps. After you fight a type of mob a few times you'll get to know which foes are which profession (for example, the Spiritcallers are Rits), and you'll know which skills to look out for. Splinter Weapon is one of them.