How do you know that?
And from where does those tutorials come from ^^
2nd uv channel (very important when you use static lighting):
collision:
LOD (important for performance): ?v=17pcyPVplEc
vertex paint (made this video for this question: https://answers.unrealengine/questions/30670/simplegrasswind.html) ?v=gu70ANd8Vbk
Now to be serious: 
When you dont have the money to buy 3ds or maya it is recommended that you use blender, because it is easy to use, free and you can do the same as in all other 3d program. In my opinion all 3d programs will be hard to start. So there is no “easy” one, but you will get used to it very quickly and then you dont want to switch the 3d program (started with blender and now it’s pretty hard for me to use 3ds )