Alright, I'm on a new game + and decided to do a mage run this time...though I ended up starting by leveling up my blunt skills so that my staff wasn't useless. Oh well, it let's me help with the guide, so let's fix up some of those skill names, shall we?
Also, the two regen skills are active, not passive. I haven't tried them myself, but I think they are made to use on the map so that you can recover between fights (or maybe used right before a fight with an AoE-heavy enemy like dragons)
EDIT: I do have a question though. How in the world do you get a wider shop selection to open up? I was disappointed in the first game when they stopped getting new stuff, but on my NG+ I don't think I've gotten a single expansion. You mentioned that it doesn't seem to be based on how much you shop there, but are you sure? That's pretty much the only difference between my current and previous runs. Did you come up with another idea?