I'm still learning Blender, but I would have to say some of my favorite features are:

• AO/texture baking (why was I doing it all by hand? )

• Array, Mirror, and SpinDup

• Customizable UI

• The pop-up preview

The texture baking really is awesome (now that I know how to do it in high quality), particulary for TS3. In TS2 you could always fudge it, somewhat, by tweaking the entire texture the way you want it .. but in TS3 the shadows are the only thing you make and they have to work under all circumstances.

I don't even want to know how people who don't use blender construct their shadows now, but it has to be a bit of a pain in the ass. I just had to readjust (and re-readjust and re-re-re-readjust) a shadow in PS, for an EA map which just wasn't accurate, and that was an absolute nightmare – next time I'll just remap the entire thing and let blender do the rest.

I think I have a faint memory of the array stuff .. is that where you duplicate parts of a mesh and make them behave all the same? (I'll have to look into that next time I make something with four legs)

Mirror modifier is better for the four legs. But yeah, that's what it is. What I use Array for is like the newspaper stacks in my/MogHughson's newspaper rack, and SpinDup for my sunburst clock (the spheres and posts).

The Subsurf modifier. I love everything smooth. :P

Loop select and Loop subdivide... You know, my choices are beginning to make me look lazy

Lol.
I also like the particle system. I'm now learning how to do hair but is looking weird. o.o

Yeah, I had problems with hair too. I could make clouds and stuff, but hair always acted funny. I think 2.5 is supposed to handle hair better. I did do well with cloth, though.