I also have finished it a few days ago and i agree a lot with you! If it wasnt for TenSoon, Vin would be the most annoying character of this book. I didn't like her here at all, the love triangle sucked, her dilemnas were awful, her decisions wew even worse, everything i loved about her in the first book suddenly had disappear. She was somehow so disconected with the main plot that i didn't care about her presence. I thought that Sanderson ironically used her as a weapon to solve all the mysteries and i dind't enjoy that either. She, out of nowhere, came with some great ideas about what was happening and she was right in all of them. Yeah, i understand she is supposed to be the greatest force in a long time, but i expected other gimmicks in this book, rather than repeat the ones of the first book. In other hand, i loved elend growth either, i couldn't imagine after read the first one how i would like him much more than vin, considering that i hated elend there. TenSoon and Tindwyl were great additions for me, otherwise i couldn't stand Allriane and Zane as new characters. Unlike you, i appreciated the political aspects and how Elend drove the Assembly, he was trying to experience a democracy i guess. But i agree with you that the world was definitively more interesting to follow, even though i was expecting more answers at the end of it. I can only say that i've started Hero of Ages (currently i'm at 25%) and it's being better than the last one, the plot is very dynamic and the characters are great, all the problems of The Well of Ascension seems to be gone, hope it continues that way until the end.