Apologies if this has been posted before, I have searched and come up with nothing of value on the topic.

That said, I'm a bit unhappy at regen itemization for at least the items we've seen so far in BC. I'm a priest, and rather than cookie cutter myself, I prefer regen to +healing (I know for pure heal spam, +healing and downranking is still mathematically better, but this type of gear helps way more in 5 mans, pvp, and anything that isn't a healing spell). I've seen a significant lack of things that include more mp/5, or abilities to get more out of Spirit, like stormrage and Transcendence used to.

Hopefully we're getting an imcomplete picture of drop data, which would be consummate with the lack of total kills on anything higher than 65 or so, but I can't be the only person that's noticed that. Surely with the +healing downrank nerf, others are seeing the regen path as being more viable, and I must say I'm disappointed. I sure as heck don't want to run AQ40 when we're all 70 so I can have an acolyte staff because there's no comperable regen weapon at 70.

Thoughts?

According to Blizzard, leveling gear is different from raiding gear, and is itemized differently. You'll find gear more to your liking in the end game instances.

This sort of thing is really messy from a design perspective. The best core regen mechanic is straightforward MP5, and they seem to have realized it. Hopefully more will start cropping up at higher levels.

Yeah, it would almost be better from a design perspective to make spi and mp/5 either do distinctly different things, with some overlap, like strength and agility, or just get rid of spi altogether b/c right now, mp/5 is just plain better 95% of the time, with awkward things like having to make /equip soulkeeper -> evocation macros to get the most out of your abilities that regen off spi... it's just silly and confusing to have redundant stats still, especially in a game that's been out for as long as WoW.

Heyo Shocktar :P

I think a couple of things worth noting:

1) There is some really nice +heal gear out there; even if it doesn't match the regen, it should allow for higher total heals (which seems to be a problem we've been running into in our 5-mans . . . although everyone spec'd for grinding rather than groups also is pretty impactful)
2) Healing will change as people begin to flush out in higher stam TBC items, and i would expect this allows for greater control and more "skill" involved for healers managing their mana pools
3) Both factions have paladins AND shaman, and a few classes provide new TBC mana regen buffs.
4) At least for pre-raid content, regen isn't sooo important (although nice) as a single encounter won't last exceptionally long
5) Socketing ftw :P gear that doesn't look good w/o socketed jewels is really deceptive, at least until people gain a full understanding of how it works (which i don't yet)
6) Power Infused Mushroom!

http://thottbot.com/?set=554

Scaling bonus (albeit small) and better than tier 3!