I have the first gen version of that flash (the not II) and I LOVE it. Powerful, recharges quickly, lots and lots of features.
The Canon flash system seems to be a little different from everyone else's, which if you are coming from another system (namely Nikon, as everyone who has used the Nikon flash system loves it and loathes the Canon system) it tends to frustrate people, but since I have never known anything else, I find it very easy. Basically, there is a flash exposure compensation that you set with the wheel on the back of the flash. This sets the exposure for what the camera thinks the subject of the picture is (what it has focus lock on). Then on the camera itself, you have the exposure compensation, which in Av and Tv modes is changed by the wheel on the back of the camera. This controls the ambient exposure.
So, if you are trying to take a picture of someone in front of a sunset say, where you want the sunset to be a bit underexposed to get more color out of it, and you want the face of the person to be properly exposed, you dial the flash exposure to +/-0, and you set the camera's exposure compensation to -1, and presto chango you have a nice dark but not too dark sunset and a properly exposed person. If you are taking pictures in bright noon sun and you want a little fill flash, you set the camera's exposure to +/-0, and you set the flash to something like -1, and you get some nice fill on faces.
What I think a lot of people find annoying or confusing (and perhaps the Nikonians can better fill me in with this) is that with a lot of systems there isn't that disconnect between the flash and the camera exposure, which can lead to things if you are taking pictures in very dark environments, and you have the camera exposure not dialed all the way down, you hit the shutter, the flash goes off, and the shutter stays open for 15" trying to get enough light to meet the exposure requirement you set with the camera exposure compensation. So you might have situations where you want to go Tv or full manual on the camera (E-TTL will still work with the flash even with the camera in manual) to force the shutter speeds you want.
The Canon flash system seems to be a little different from everyone else's, which if you are coming from another system (namely Nikon, as everyone who has used the Nikon flash system loves it and loathes the Canon system) it tends to frustrate people, but since I have never known anything else, I find it very easy. Basically, there is a flash exposure compensation that you set with the wheel on the back of the flash. This sets the exposure for what the camera thinks the subject of the picture is (what it has focus lock on). Then on the camera itself, you have the exposure compensation, which in Av and Tv modes is changed by the wheel on the back of the camera. This controls the ambient exposure.
So, if you are trying to take a picture of someone in front of a sunset say, where you want the sunset to be a bit underexposed to get more color out of it, and you want the face of the person to be properly exposed, you dial the flash exposure to +/-0, and you set the camera's exposure compensation to -1, and presto chango you have a nice dark but not too dark sunset and a properly exposed person. If you are taking pictures in bright noon sun and you want a little fill flash, you set the camera's exposure to +/-0, and you set the flash to something like -1, and you get some nice fill on faces.
What I think a lot of people find annoying or confusing (and perhaps the Nikonians can better fill me in with this) is that with a lot of systems there isn't that disconnect between the flash and the camera exposure, which can lead to things if you are taking pictures in very dark environments, and you have the camera exposure not dialed all the way down, you hit the shutter, the flash goes off, and the shutter stays open for 15" trying to get enough light to meet the exposure requirement you set with the camera exposure compensation. So you might have situations where you want to go Tv or full manual on the camera (E-TTL will still work with the flash even with the camera in manual) to force the shutter speeds you want.
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Two resources I would suggets, the first is a great blog about off camera flash use is 
