Sell me on Regen.....

Regen really points out what survivability is in this game.

Notice how many of the posts talk about how good regen is when you add defense. This is true, because defense will improve your survivability far more than any other factor. If you don't get hit, obviously you don't take damage, and on top of that, you completely avoid secondary effects like slows, minus regen, minus rech, etc.

Of course, the devs noticed this, and in trying to lessen the gap between the value of defense and things like resistance, regen, etc, started adding defense busting mechanisms in the new content like tip missions and incarnate material. That has increased the need for layered survival techniques, meaning stacking defense with things like regen and resistances.

That's why a set like regen has moved up in the ranks of secondaries, because it offers a lot of survival powers to add to any defense you can build with pool powers and io set bonuses. On the other hand, a set like super reflexes, has dropped like a stone, imo, because once you get past it's defense, it offers little to nothing in terms of layered defenses, while io set bonuses do not offer resistance or regen bonuses anywhere near rivaling defense bonuses other non-def based sets benefit from.

As always, anecdotal evidence is anecdotal, and YMMV, but earlier today I was on my lvl48 kat/regen stalker (basic IOs only), and "tanked" (fortitude helped me cheat at this) for my +4/x8 team of only 4 members (blaster blaster def me, attack chain was AS -> Water Spout -> DP -> Scrapperlock). ...then again, once the ill/time troller showed up he started taking mobs by himself, but that's another story

Like others have said, /regen is more survivable than one might think, and even more appeal comes from the fact that +def/+res adds more to /regen than it does any other defense set.

Unlike most posters here, I like /regen most on a stalker (I tried it there first, so I may be biased...): having other tools like Placate, Water Spout, and Hibernate (or Shadow Meld, if you're feeling lucky) makes me die even less than other AT regens

Going off on a mild tangent, but I want to also express my love for Water Spout on a regen stalker. Bouncing enemies up and down while you cut them into ribbons and let your native regeneration heal all your boo-boo's is just as potent as using something like MoG of Shadow Meld. Even better, Water Spout does a pretty hefty amount of damage after you total everything up, especially if it's focused on battering a single opponent.

Outside of that Regen Stalker is still good, I think, it's just annoying that Dull Pain isn't doing as much for me because of the very low HP cap stalkers have to deal with.

Sales pitch by Iggy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3BxV_J34J4

As noted above, the regen character benefits the most from what the team has to offer. Every shield and buff gives it's full measure of love. Solo, I find I can do just about anything with my kat regen or spines regen scrapper that I want to do. Large team Alpha's still pose a bit of threat if you don't have any shield, but I usually hope at least one of the other toons in the party can provide some support. If not, hit an inspiration and either die fast or win.

Regen was and I suppose still is one of my favorite defense sets, ever since day one. It's gone through a lot of changes but I always did quite well with it. On standard enhancements, it does just as well as any other set from 1-50, imo, and gets even better with Inventions. The problem, I think is that since it's inception and many changes, peoples expectations and sheer lazyness have gone up. I went on hiatus before GR and come back to new mission sliders, 'harder' trials and soft-capped, passive secondaries that you set and forget with extra goodies to boot. Looks like they've also added it to the Brute arsenal, who seem to be the new Tankers and expecting to tank +4/x8. Doubt that helps it's image.

Click heals are underrated I've found. Many folks prefer sets where they can worry about fighting and not spend too much time on their defense. Regen is not such a set out of the box. But it can become so.

My SS/Regen Brute for example has 40% Sm, Le defense. And 2800 HP most of the time with some overlap at 3200. Add to that 32% Sm, Le resists and 14% resists to all.

I do not feel 'weak'.

I didn't feel weak before I had the build in place. Regen isn't for everyone. As I said, it takes management, but you always have a button to push to get yourself out of trouble. That's what it gives you that sets like Willpower and SR, and even my beloved Shield do not. Ways to turn the tide when things go south.

My Fire/Shield is a beast and in general can survive most anything. What I find interesting is the things she can't my BS/Regen handles with ease.