do i want gear that increases my mana pool or that increases the regen rate?

Lvl 18, dest 54

Probably mana increase since people complain mana regeneration is low during combat.

Or even better, maybe gear with +destruction skill, or gear with +reduce destruction spell costs gear. I cannot keep track, there are quite a number of different enchants.

As a mage you're probably going to be putting most of your level up points into magicka already right? So having higher regeneration from your armour may be more useful.

Go for reduced mana cost first.

Reduced magicka cost>more magicka>regen speed bonus

I think regen is better.

Edit: The reduced mana cost on 4 items is a bit cheesy for me ... kind of trivializes the whole mana/mana regen mechanic of mages.

i kinda do feel like the regen is slower in combat, is there any stat of proof thats true?

It's definitelly true ... it's about 1/3 of out of combat regen and it only works when you don't cast anything. Also buffing your magicka buffs your regen as well, because the reneration is on fixed timers. For example with 100 magicka you regenerate in combat in 90 seconds, with 200 magicka same 90 seconds. 100% mana regen cuts this time in half, 300% mana regen lets you regen whole mana pool in 20 secs in combat.

cool thanks

and what do you guys think about using equilibrium?