What are the best modifiers for melee gear for a mage if they wanted to melee from 1-25 then start casting 25/-71.

if you use daggers

so dex , critical strike in my opinion

I figured Max Life / LPK / Leech / EE would be most important with Dex also factoring in lol

ee daggers 1-20
dex robes 1-20
dex charms 1-20

1-10, secondary stats that are nice in priority would be:
+max life
+life per kill
+critical strike


example:

t3 dagger with: ee, max life, lpk
t3 robe with: dex, max life, lpk
t3 charm with: dex, max life, lpk

more stats on top of those are always best. but early levels, things mostly die in 1 hit. so, i have found stacking life and lpk doesn't sacrifice much speed at the cost of longevity of fighting.
depending on if you can find decent gear at those levels at t3, your best bet (IMO), would be to be acquire those items and see how comfortably they carry you and seek out your next item for you set. best of luck and happy slashing.

Awesome feedback. Thanks so much!