Having moved from Max to Blender here are my views (based around Max 4 so it will have changed).

Some of the Max work flow feels better especially if spline or NURB work - the tools just feel a hint more capable it's easier to add points to a spline or just minor things like grabbing a vertex handle can be a little smoother. Max also has the inbuilt Biped object which is fantastic - so very easy to get a figure skinned and animated. Max physics also feels more natural on work flow.

Blenders node based mats are better then the max texture editor. Max booleans suck more then blender ones even though some in the blender community moan about them.

Blender is far better on cost :) a few thousand dollars/pounds is an awful lot of money for relatively subjective items, for me this was the deciding factor, do not underestimate blender it is a fantastic tool and it's features put it up there with the high cost tools. It's only work flow that can feel twitchy.

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Toolset: Blender, GIMP, Indigo Render, LuxRender, TopMod, Knotplot, Ivy Gen, Plant Studio.