Ships & Modules

I've had fun in jaguar and wolf on minmatar side for AF. Fairly easy to get in to them. Though, minmatar stuff takes good piloting, and rely on the speed to make most of their fits work. Though, arty scram/kite jag is really good with good piloting. wolf lacks range control, so its only really good against bigger/slower ships.

matari HAC's are kind of sketchy at the moment, vagabond is ok, its fun to solo in with a good speed fit, otherwise is squishy when caught. Muninn is mostly worthless. Scythe FI is a decent cruiser, i would maybe recommend at least training into light missiles, as an rlml scyfi is pretty potent if you just want to kill some frigates. Plenty fast as well.

i mainly fly thrasher/breacher/vagabond/scyfi/jag/typhoon and tempest FI, training into CS now, as the slep and claymore are awesome (long train time though). As a note, make sure your fitting skills are good, minmatar ships are tight a majority of the time on PG/CPU.

Pulse lasers are the best turrets in game, bar none. However currently the best weapon system in the game are drone boats. Worm, gila, Vexor navy, Vexor, Ishtar- are all extremely strong ships.

If you are set on turrets, then I would suggest the following ships:

Omen navy issue
Zealot (Shield fit)
Aug Navy
Phantasm

Those 4 ships are all very strong, and powerful solo / small gang choices.

Stabber is really bad. Infact all of the stabber variations, Vaga included are bad at kiting. Cynbal is meh?

I would suggest focusing on getting all gunnery support skills to 5 before switching to another weapons system. Trajectory analysis and Motion Prediction maxed out is important for any race but imperative to Matari because almost all engagements occur in fall off and usually at decent velocities which causes you to lose DPS to tracking problems. Also, once you switch to hybrids or energy turrets you will have to invest in Spaceship Command skills to make those ships shine which is SP that would be more efficiently spent training support skills such as the ones listed above. Rapid firing, Surgical Strike, and Sharpshooter (more important for artillery than autos) to 5 will make the most of the projectile system you're currently specialized in and you can completely overlook controlled bursts currently. If you go hybrid or energy then you must train controlled bursts at least to 4 which is even MORE time you could have spent building a good gunnery base.

I say this as someone who started out purely Gallente with hybrids and drones. I trained up to T2 medium hybrids with level 4 gunnery support skills and then I took them all to 5 (except Surgical strike because its rank 5) before moving on to large hybrid turrets. After training Large blaster and rail spec to 4, then I decided to start dipping into T2 projectiles and eventually energy weapons. Having a solid base in gunnery will help you immensely in the transition and make it an overall more enjoyable experience with the projectiles you're using currently, and the new weapon system you decide to pick up. 1.9m in Gunnery is not much, I've got more SP in gunnery than your entire character. I'm not boasting simply putting into perspective how much room there is for improvement.

My advice is to answer these questions and and act appropriately:

1) Will I be using projectiles more than my new weapon system? If not then be patient, work on the support skills to make the most of what you have.

2) What ship class(es) will I be using primarily? Take the top two to level 5 in spaceship command, it will give you the edge that just might save your ass.

This will allow you to be solid at one thing instead of "ok" at several. I'd put some time into armour skills since Gallente and Amarr both use them and you'll more than likely be heading that direction when you decide you're ready. Hope this helps.

Side note: For those saying the vagabond is bad at kiting must not fly it much because after several nerfs its still one of the fastest, most agile cruisers in the game especially with 2 nanofibers. Also, there is absolutely no reason to passive tank it with the new shield boost bonus which comes to life quite nicely with an ancillary shield booster. The dps however could use some love, it is quite anemic deep in fall off.

In the end it comes down to what you want. Gallente is the obvious choice for x-training right now. If you built up your projectile skills a bit more you can get away with fitting some of the drone boats with projectiles.
This way you can satisfy your desire to fly something new and remain focused on getting your Matar skills up to level. If you are just a number in a blob it may make no difference, but even then you may want to be on top of killmails sometimes.

My advice would be to focus on your gunnery support skills, get medium and small weapon specs to 4 and mix in some Gallente ship and drone skills every now and then. If your favourite ride is a T2 ship, get the skill to 5 as well.

It is imho immensily satisfying to have your favourite ship performing close to it's optimum.

Later you can add Caldari and Amarr to the mix. Amarr require perfect engineering skills, therefore I would put them at the end of my to do list.

you are still in time to train for blaster and gallente ships.
minmatar ships keep getting nerfed at every rebalance pass, and right now they are in a really sad position.
it pains me to say that since i always loved minmatar ships but right now as someone who can fly all subcap ships minmatar its pretty much always my last choice and i always play in very small gang/solo