EVE New Citizens Q&A

I'm not an expert, so don't burn me at the stake for any mistakes here! As stated in the "Choosing a Race" thread, it doesn't matter too much now that distinct racial bonuses are gone. You can train in factional ships to fly whatever works best. That being said, here's what I've heard:

• Drake (Caldari) is great for mission-running. Not sure about Incursions/Wormholes, though.
• Minmatar have the Rifter, which is a very flexible and viable frigate, and they also have the Scimitar, a good logistical ship if you're into helping your fellow pilots survive getting shot in the face.
• Amarr is not "gimp" - at least, not anymore - though their damage output is a bit limited because lasers only pump out Thermal & EM. However, they're good armor tanks and as long as they sit back and cycle their god-weapons, they should be able to cut through most things that get in their way. That's why they're better in groups than solo.
• Gallente is probably a solid choice for PvE, what with all their drones.

In the end, pick which empire's backstory and aesthetics you enjoy the most .

I currently live in a wormhole and my alt does incursions in shield-tanked fleets.

All races have viable ships that can be used to complete these goals, however if you are looking for the easiest path I would say Caldari. You only need to train up two major areas of skills, shields and missiles, to fly most Caldari ships effectively.

A Drake can be used to run up to C3 wormhole sites, upgrading to a Tengu will give great self-tank or remote-rep capability for higher class wormholes. It is also easy to fly because missiles have long range and you don't need to put in a lot of effort.
A Tengu will be accepted into incursion fleets, Basilisks are also always in high demand.

Possible next steps would be a cross-train into Amarr with the eventual goal of flying a Nightmare in incursions or zealot/legion in wormholes. All three will require training lasers as well, the Amarr cruisers will need armor training.

Down the line if you're interested in PvP, ECM training might work well for the Falcon or Tengu. Drakes or Basilisks will do the trick though.

PS. Why not Amarr from the beginning? The training is also relatively easy, armor and lasers, but you'll need good capacitor skills also to keep the lasers firing. Lasers are limited to certain kinds of damage which isn't ideal if you decide to run agent missions. You're also fairly limited by range because beam lasers aren't that great until Tachyons, and pulse lasers aren't that great until Scorch.