As for the mirror problem I recommend you try out zhcg polyTools http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/polygon/c/zhcg_polytools--2 It practically makes the mirror for you and has a lot of other cool features cheers !
That's not helpful at all! All I can think of is: If you feel like relearning another method, workflow and way of thinking, then yeah, Maya can be good to you. Most people try to think of Maya and keep complaining about it's features because "Max has it". Instead of finding a way on how MAYA would do it. It's a real…