Ships & Modules

algos is solid. Should be able to handle all your missioning needs with ease as long as you are training the appropriate skills. Bonused light drones wreak havoc on level 1 and 2 missions. You may want to upgrade to a vexor for level2s as its tankier. Vexor navy, brutix, or myrmidon for level 3's.

Yep, skill training is everything in Eve. If you're shooting for PVP down the road, you want to pick a particular role or style and stick to that until it's mastered before you branch out. I focused more on the hybrid brawler role, so I generally prefer the Incursus/Atron/Catalyst/Thorax route, but the drone boats are much more flexible and thereby survivable. Gallente are the kings of drones, progressing from the Tristan/Algos/Vexor/Myrmidon like mentioned above.

However, better weapons are greater than bigger ships. Most of us learn the hard way that a bigger boat doesn't help when you're not dishing out much damage. The faster you train into Tech2 weapons and gear, the better off you'll be. Also remember to train the skills that reduce the powergrid, cpu, and capacitor use of that gear (mostly the 'upgrades' skills).

I've had several algi/algos/algosses and I love it. it is VERY versatile, and I've even used it for scanning. I use hobgoblins mInly as I can carry more of them and they do more damage with my skills, but I've bought morr algi than I have catalysts. staying at range, watching rats get blown up from afar is HUGELY satisfying.

While it may seem like that, particularly to new players who are already likely to be feeling daunted by the "somewhat steep learning cliff", there's more to it than that.
While the skills your character learns are important many will argue that the skills you learn as a player are far more important, at least in the long term. When I was in IAC most of the alliance didn't believe that I could solo rat in Catch in a Thorax, until they saw me in a belt, orbitting a Slave Lord while my frigate guns and drones dealt with his mates. I ran the Blood-Stained Stars epic arc with a new character a while back and was able to help out someone who had lost their Thrasher to one of the missions (one of the first, if not the first, with a cruiser in it) - they were sceptical when I undocked in a Punisher but they wanted the fit after I tanked the entire mission for them... Despite the fact that the character I was running the arc on didn't have enough skills to properly fit the ship and I still had two empty lowslots.

Skills like being able to calculate (even in very rough terms) your transversal from the various ships you're engaging, assessing which hostile ships you need to kill first and so forth, knowing what your ship is capable of and how to extract what you can from it can be far more important than skills like Engineering and Electronics.

Algos is a solid ship i used on my alt all for lvl 1 n 2 missions without a problem, i concentrated on my drone skills for t2 light/mediums then got my t2 shield/armor skills done an by time lvl 3 came across i invested in a navy vexor an could put out sentry 1's then an its breezing through lvl3 quite easily while i now concentrate on being able to fit a domi for lvl 4

I found getting my drone skills up a priority to be the best thing i could do

Mobile Tractor Unit and Afterburner (tech II).

Apologies, I was typing fast in work and slipped into acronym land :D

Drone skills will serve you very well with the algos and it is the ship I most wish they would introduce a tech II variant for