mana vs mp5 vs no early game sustain?

This argument is based around whether it's better to focus on mana in your early items, mp5 in early items, or neither and just focus directly on dmg or tank.

I used to think that mp5 was the best because a self-replenishing source of mana seemed better than a lot of mana that eventually runs out. However, over time it became pretty obvious that the usual 5 mp5 you get from the first level of a sustain-based item doesn't really replenish the mana used by abilities. (Of course, I'm talking from personal experience rather than hard statistics.)

So the actual use of mp5 is questionable. But this doesn't make mana better. The average ability uses what, 50 mana level 1 and 100 mana level 5? 100 mana per item? An extra 1-2 abilities? Enough mana to clear an extra wave doesn't seem very significant to me.

Also, whether or not you have an infinite source of mana due to high mp5, you will want to go back anyway to keep up in items.

Plus, after about 10 mins the laning phase starts to dissolve and mana and mp5 become increasingly useless. (People don't tend to run out of mana during the team battle stages).

So, that brings up the other option - not bothering with mana items. Is the best option just skipping to AD equipment and not bothering with endurance? Sure, you'd probably get underfed because your opponent would push you to the tower or force you to keep going back but you wouldn't be wasting money on mana and mp5.

Useful statistics for working out how useful mana and mp5 would probably include how many seconds it takes a wave to pop out and how much xp is gained from a wave and how much xp is needed to get to level 5. The time between waves would be useful for working out how much mp5 is replenished between waves and the xp statistics would be useful for knowing how long our mana needs to last before we get enough xp to return. A quick search and I couldn't find any of these. Perhaps someone who knows could help?

I'm going to assume that Conquest is the only game mode you want us to discuss here. Speaking from my own personal experience, as well as Ao Kuang being one of my favorite gods in SMITE, I would say that increasing your mana pool should never be prioritized over actual damage, health or protection.

When it comes to MP5 however, it would be foolish not to buy one in the early game. Not only would it cause you to fall behind in gold and experience from repeatedly having to leave your lane, but you'd probably have to buy more Teleport than usual as well in order to save your tower.

Also if your tower gets destroyed early on, the enemy could use it to their advantage by not basic attacking the minions, which would force you having to go out from tower range and being vulnerable from jungle gank in order to get any gold or experience at all. This is probably not a very common thing outside of ranked however, but it could still happen.

Minion waves reaches the center of the lanes once every 30 second in Conquest.

Chronos' Pendant GG.
Seriously, that item is like my all time favorite. I think the only mages I don't get it on are the basic attackers, like Chronos himself, and Freya. Sometimes I'll pick it up even then. But the CDR, MP5, and still decent MP is good early game.