Set bonuses and slotting removes the need for Quick Recovery as much as it does for quickness though.
I've never had a problem with Alphas on a regen, as you can make sure there isn't one easily enough (you dont have to jump into the middle of a group and if the attacks comes a couple of seconds apart you live)
I don't think there is a massive power balance between any of the sets but some will prefer a different style to others. I find regen dull, I find regen easy. That doesn't mean everyone will. I find I can get good damage out of SR, probably my mind set on slotting. Doesn't mean everyone will.
Oh and if I have to take an alpha I like it in my invul most, ignore a load of the damage then hit dull pain. My DA brute would be second I love going from red to green on him. I guess the feel would be the same on a scrapper
Edit: ah now I see your edit, ET is part of what I mean for not needing an alpha. My Claw/WP/Body uses that to stagger the damage. In my eyes that's more avoiding an aplha than taking one but I see what you're saying
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
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Set bonuses and slotting removes the need for Quick Recovery as much as it does for quickness though.
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I didn't say slotting removed a need for the power, quite the reverse. I said taking the power meant you could focus on slotting other stuff (Damage procs in place of any Endred would be the most obvious benefit).
Whilst Recovery bonuses can reduce the need for slotting endred, it cannot eliminate it completely. Unless you ALSO have endred in your attacks you are still going to run out of endurance over the course of a long fight. Slotted Quick Recovery gives about +60% Recovery. The [Miracle + Numina] Uniques only give a total of +25% Recovery, and a Regen can slot those too without affecting their attack slotting... 
On the other hand, Global recharge rate buffs will directly reduce the need for (or benefit of) Quickness. Without Hasten or any Recharge rate enhancements, Quickness is very noticable. When you have +50-60% Passive Recharge buffs plus Hasten (fairly easy to attain), it becomes more superfluous (or at least, less noticable).
But this is merely a long winded way of saying that "Regen lets you slot for less endred (and therefore more damage/recharge) whilst SR gives you more recharge straight off the bat". A side effect is that Regen gives you less downtime, since more recovery != more endred when you're going from 0 to full endurance after a complete drain (-recovery/rezzed/sapped/whatever).
Note that I tend to play my Spines/DA more these days, so I honestly have no abstract preference between SR and Regen... although if we get Fire/Energy Melee in i12, I'mma gonna be rolling me another /regen... 
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Edit: ah now I see your edit, ET is part of what I mean for not needing an alpha. My Claw/WP/Body uses that to stagger the damage. In my eyes that's more avoiding an aplha than taking one but I see what you're saying
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Yeah, that's probably semantics confusing me again there... 
When I say "My toon takes the alpha" I mean "I make sure that my toon is the first one the mob targets, and my toon survives any opening salvo that they then manage to get off". Whether said toon accomplishes this by directly weathering all normal damage, or mitigates it via mez/knockdown the result is the same (the enemies all notice me first and my toon is in no danger of dying!) 
In slotting sets to achieve the other bonuses I have always found I get an end reduction and a recharge reduction in attacks.
I want to try Fire/DA if they bring fire out in i12 and currently I play my Spine/Invul more than any of my other scrappers. If task forces come up though I tend to sign on with the old DM/Sr and air him out a bit (though the Claw/WP will be also after attention now, to bring semi back on topic with WP vs Regen)
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
I've kind of settled into a generic method of attack slotting:
5 Crushing Impacts (all except Dam/End) plus either a Proc or a Mako Acc/Rech/End if I want Recharge. This is a fairly common melee-attack slotting method for all my toons, not just Regens.
4 Mako's Bites (Acc/Dam, Dam/Rech, Acc/Dam/End/Rech, Proc) plus either [a Acc/Dam HO and another Proc] or [Focussed Smite Acc/Dam/Rech + C.Impact Acc/Dam/Rech] if I want +Damage. This is more "regens-only".
For the Regen, it'd probably be Makos since I can slot 5 "Doctored Wounds" into most of his heals (Reconstruction, DP, IH, Integration, FH, leaving Health free for the uniques) for five "5% +Rech" set bonuses.
More OT, I've looked into the idea of rolling a Fire/WP Tanker, but I don't really like Willpower as a secondary for Scrappers. I don't like the idea of not having a reliable self-heal, and I've got this mindset that Scrappers are meant to be better at one-on-one fighting strong foes than Willpower is.
I guess to get really back OT Willpower compares better to Inv than Regen because of the aura. Where as Regen is very ST focused willpower is about keeping groups around you. Regen and SR are often compared (see above, so many items of proof) but WP is more like Invul than Regen. It does miss having dull pain, but if it had dull pain it would be over powered.
I've not looked into SIO slotting my regen because I dont play it enough. my SR's tend to use Touch Of death and Multi Strikes though for the defence increases, as these both require 6 slotting I get the full sets and healthy endurance discounts. My BS/SR wont be having an ST ranged attack so also requires a maco's bite to make up the ranged defence element (have a thunderstrike in my dark blast)
Strangely enough my Invul is built towards regen and recovery in his attacks so is different again. I think my Fire/DA should it ever exist would be mostly aiming for recharge though and and thus using something close to your set up
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
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Soloing on a regen is stupidly easy, on invince my regen doesn't use any of the clickies the passive regen from integration is plenty.
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What a ludicrous statement. Ever tried an Elite Boss, or a Bane Spider Boss. Obviously you must avoid actually doing anything remotely difficult when soloing as 40 or so hp/sec isn't enough to overcome the spike damage from the majority of bosses.
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So I really don't get your comment about soloing EB's being so hard or, far beyond, soloing Bane bosses... mainly as the quickest xp to solo your way after SOs lv is go farm Sirens and then WB quick arachnos missions. Bosses spike damage is a laugh with gadgets like Dull Pain, reconstruction, IH, MOG... and the huge regen you get from integration, fast healing and health. No matter how tough a boss hits, you will always have a heal up again before getting into hairy hp levels. A regen needn't worry on a single tough baddie dmg, AV's aside.
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Please actually read what you are quoting. Cynic Stated he doesn't need to use clickies when soloing which I said was a load of rubbish, and which you actually agreed with me on! So why are you trying to pick an argument with me when you actually agree with me that you DO need to use your self heals to solo....
(I never stated that I find soloing in any way difficult on a regen I was simply using examples of mobs which it is virtually impossible to solo without using your clicky powers in order to illustrate my point)
Most elite bosses you can solo without your self heals, some you cant. There will always be exceptions that some sets will find tougher.
Oh course if you cant then maybe its a play style thing, but most it is more than possible to do. Obviously its only because I am DM/Regen which is apparently easy mode I guess
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
[ QUOTE ]
So I really don't get your comment about soloing EB's being so hard or, far beyond, soloing Bane bosses... mainly as the quickest xp to solo your way after SOs lv is go farm Sirens and then WB quick arachnos missions. Bosses spike damage is a laugh with gadgets like Dull Pain, reconstruction, IH, MOG... and the huge regen you get from integration, fast healing and health. No matter how tough a boss hits, you will always have a heal up again before getting into hairy hp levels. A regen needn't worry on a single tough baddie dmg, AV's aside.
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Am I the only one here who fights enemies like the Carnies or Vanguard mobs in RWZ? Firstly, Dark Ring Mistresses have an ability which can reduce your regeneration to a flat zero. Even when using Instant Healing, your regen isn't too great and can't handle the spike damage from their other heavier attacks. Higher level Vanguard mobs have insane DoT attacks which can level your HP regardless of IH or DP, forcing you to spam heals and pick your targets more carefully.
Thats solo. In a group, which they are often found in, they're a force to be reckoned with. There are plenty of enemies in the game that can flatten Regens. Super Reflex characters have at least the benefit of avoiding some of the heavy hits.
I love my Regen scrapper. I can handle most enemies and situations without too much hassle, but there will always be times where it gets too much. There's no such thing as an "easy" class.
Characters:
The Heroic Mary Grace (50)
The Mystical Thunderspark (50)
The Candy-loving Little Jenny (50)
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In that case any secondary alike will be the same, but /SR will make you have a quicker recharge rate on your attacks, so your dmg/minute will be higher, and /DA will have a dmg aura, and /dark, WP and Invinc have their own aggro aura to keep baddies attention away from squishies, so in all cases /Regen would be offering less than them to the team. Besides, you dont always play on ideal teams, sometimes it's the scrapper that has to go bear the alpha, if it's the only melee toon on a squishies' team. And regen is by far the worse to take the alpha on teams
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I agree with most of the top half of your post, but I've a few issues with this second bit. Regen has Quick Recovery, which as I pointed out in my last post, lets you slot more recharge/damage/procs/blueberry muffins and not worry about endred. This pretty much covers the gap between Regen and SR's Quickness, particularly when you consider that with the availablility of Hasten and Set bonuses (assuming all secondaries are equally IO'ed) Quickness's effective usefulness diminishes.
On your last point, Regen is now the secondary BEST SUITED to taking a heavy alpha. Perma Dull Pain is one reason. "New MoG" is the other. MoG now lets my Regen [u]Stalker[u] take the alpha for an 8-man team...
My namesake and first level 50, Maelwys, is a SO'ed Katana/Regen/Body that hasn't respecced since issue 6. Whilst he's very very rarely played these days, he virtually always took the alpha and was extremely capable at doing so (his secondary let him have zero downtime, at higher levels he opened with Energy Torrent's Knockdown). He's certainly never shied away from EB fights. Before the AV +regen rate buff patch he regularly soloed GMs such as the Paladin and Kraken (due to a combo of Divine Avalanche and Regen's clickyheals).