I'll admit I don't use regen, and people I group with never notice one way or another if it's running, but that doesn't mean it's a useless spell. It is just, in my opinion ... lacking.
I suppose my main point, perhaps not properly expressed, is that EQ needs some FLAIR (insert twinkling stars around the word 'flair') to bring people back to the game. Spell progression is very much like an expansion where 'tougher' means 'mobs with more hp and more dps'.
Seriously, what's exciting about 'regen spell that does 15% more healing per tick', or 'disease dot that does 15% more damage per tick'? Take the wizard class as a PRIME example of what EQ should be working toward. One spell affects another, and a smart caster can optimize what they do by properly juggling spell casting.
In my opinion, spells are largely stagnant for quite a few classes. Look at the level 79 SK spear. It's the same as the first spear they EVER get - more damage, more mana, no resist adjust, long recast, still resisted a majority of the time ... the ONLY upgrade is 'slightly more damage for slightly more mana'.
Imagine you're a player that quit a couple of years ago and are thinking about coming back. You played an SK to level 70 with a bunch of AA, and the EQ bug is itching again. So you poke around, see what there is to see ... and what do you get? The same spells repeating themselves with little in the way of originality. Yes, there are quite a few unique spells that have found there way into the game, but I'm honestly not talking about making every spell AMAZING MUST CAST material. I'm talking about mixing up the existing formula to be more interesting.
To continue the SK example, maybe one of their dots has a recourse that reduces the resist of a spear spell, followed by another dot that increases the damage. Maybe each tick has a 30% chance to have a 6 second short duration buff appear. If you cast a spear while that buff is up, then the additional effect occurs. Suddenly there is a reason to cast dots you might not otherwise cast. You don't NEED to (status quo if you don't), but suddenly the smart SK can maximize dps by juggling different spell lines up.
There's a lot of room to play with the existing system without making things too complicated. Basically look at each spell line for each class, see which ones never get cast, and upgrade them to make each class want to think about what they are casting.
