My preferred assembler is
FASM. It's real simple which to me is preferrable since it allows me to focus on the code rather than the IDE. It also has a large support forum.
I've had trouble learning assembly because I wanted to start with something VERY basic. Like I turn on the computer and it relies solely on my code basic. So if it helps here's a
tutorial I wrote up. I think that's about as rudimentary as it can get. I didn't have much interest in using assembly to inteface with the Win32 API or other stuff like that, or embedding it in C. My previous experience with assembly was using the Little Computer 3 from a textbook in college, which was basically an emulator, and we could write low-level code for it.