I'm surprised you guys are saying the regen is more important pre-50, because when looking at the wiki it looks like the regen jumps by a lot once you get passed 50. From lvl 20-49, a Human regens 3, while Iksar regens 6. Then at 51 a Human regens 5 and Iksar 12, and at 56 a Human is 6 and Iksar is 16.

It seems like the regen is worth having more post-50, than it is pre-50. Is that not correct?

Also it seems like when comparing regen vs no regen, is the only real factor to consider, is downtime regening between fights? In combat regen doesn't really matter, unless using a Fungi? (Which I will probably never get lol). Is that correct?

So basically the biggest benefit of the regen on a Monk is less downtime between fights, essentially half, right?

It is very very good 51+ as it ramps up, yes. It also happens to be good from like 1-15, when the extra 1hp regen is significant. Otherwise, it's still solid if you're solo, but less obviously great.

Not quite. Insofar as you're not sitting around at full health, the regen is always ticking, giving you more HP than you'd have otherwise. Think of HP like a resource that you trade for mob kills. Thus having more HP to spend per hour, means you get to buy more EXP per hour.

Does this make up for the 20% penalty? If you maximize for it, probably. If you sit around killing slow static spawns and going afk a lot, maybe not. Either way, in the end you get a stronger character.

However, if you don't like being a lizard, do not be a lizard. Not liking the appearance/lore of your character sucks. This is a role-playing game after all.

Iksar seems the obvious choice. Can pretty easily make own set of cured silk from FoB spiders, and Iksar Berserker Club is right next door. That's basically going to be your gear for a pretty long time.

If you can stand the graphics of the Iksar model, go Iksar 100%. Who cares about exp penalties, its a time locked server on its 5th year in Velious. Play to have fun and you will never lose!