Originally Posted by Arthurious

lets say I have Pendant of the Violet Eye and Divine Illumination

A) so I cast 26 times, using divine illumination and pendant of the violet eye and the same time(the buffs run out at 13 casts but I continue to cast to get a total of 26 casts.

B) I cast another 26 times, using divine illumination and pendant of the violet eye one after the other

if my base regen is 45 mp5, which method will leave me with more mana?

I'm guessing A because for the 13 casts I have a buffer of mana building up so my first 13 casts don't cost any mana(since I have both the trinket and divine illumination up) and my base regen will build up my mana pool. This will make it so my other 13 casts will eat into the mana that was regenerated through base regen and leave my mana pool virtually the same.

So I will end up with more mana at the end of 26 casts than player B will at the end of his 26 casts