My favourite 10 characters from the 43 in DW3 and DW4 are as follows:
Remember that these are only my views and not official or anything, post afterwards what you think.

1. Lu Bu
He is the greatest and the only character that can compeltely max out his stats both in the character select screen and also in the item select screen.

2. Cao Cao
The most versatile character in the game, plus he comes with an awsome Death attack on his fourth weapon. I love his moves and everything about him, plus he's the King of Wei, which helps :p

3. Guan Yu
Amazing attacks, wonderful weapon and has his own brilliant stage to himself, Guan Yu's escape. I love that stage! Plus, he's the best character that you start the game with.

I'm not going into that much detail after the first 3 characters

4. Xiahou Dun
Great sword, plus you've got to love the eye-patch!!!

5. Dian Wei
He has massive muscles plus I jsut love his attacks for some reason.

6. Zhang He
If you ignore the fact that he looks like a woman and has one nipple showing, he's quite good.

7. Nu Wa
Could she get any faster?

8. Fu Xi
Could his sword get any bigger?

9. Zhao Yun
he's the default character and is quite good actually!

10. Zhen Ji
Her musou attack is brilliant, because its funny cos she uses a flute.

If you get Nu Wa's last weapon, shes unbeatable.

yep
yep
yep
yep
u-huh
mhm
yeppers
right
sure
(k im bored now)

and you'd say she is better than Lu Bu?

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Zhu Rong, the queen of the Nanman tribe (one of the 'Other', or 'Unaligned' characters). Her attacks are quick and deadly, her boomerang has a long range and can take out quite a few enemies at once, especially on horseback, and her True Musuo attack burns the enemy to dust, especially in DW3 with her level 4 weapon Magma Wheel (not to mention throws knives at them at the same time!).

Plus it goes without saying that she is very attractive (not bad for a woman who lived nearly 2000 years ago), and the sexual tension between herself and her husband, Meng Huo, is absolutely hilarious (the FMV The Nanman Way on DW4 is a case in point.). As she says whenever she defeats an officer in DW4: "That oughta learn ya!"

Second place goes to Xiahou Dun, for his utter 'bad-arse-tude'. I mean, the huge sword, the coat, the whole eye-eating thing! Man, this guy utterly rocks! :D

I'm not disagreeing with ya, but many character rankings of DW3 placed Zhu second to last. I agree with you in many points, though.

Yay! A DW thread!

My favorites:
MALE= I only have one, and it's none other than JIANG WEI. I use him all the time. I love spears or long-ranged weapons, and I think he handles them perfectly. I also love his musou. Does a great deal of damage. ^_^

FEMALE= As for the female, I have two. DIAO CHAN and SUNXIANGSHANG. My reason for liking Diao Chan is simple and shallow. She's so pretty and captivating that I was like `wowwwwwww` when I saw her in an fmv. Her weapon's pretty cute too. Though very girly. And her musou, lol she uses both her arms and legs simultaneously. the others cant do that lol. she just flies through the air. As for sunxiang, what I really like about her is her being boyish and her weapon! It is awesome!