Hope this is the right place to post this.

During my first few days of playing, I elected to go straight for a combat rather than economic roll and after a few low level missions and some ratting I quickly found my favored playstyle was railgun sniping.

Unfortunately I quickly found that among the Caldari ships the best platforms for this were far out of my means and after a brief attempt at mining for it I gave up and left for a few months. However I'm back and plan to sell PLEX or mine to raise the money needed for a Rokh or Naga (and the right fit of course).

My question is would it be wise to purchase a very expensive ship or two without any PVP experience, and limited PVE. Or should I pace myself and practice with a smaller, crappier ship before joining an alliance and jumping into the large PVP battles that I'm looking forward to. I'm worried that i would simply become an expensive and easy target no matter how good my fit.

tl;dr: What happens if a noob gets a fancy battleship after having skipped cruisers, battlecruisers and mid level PVE?

tl;dr: What happens if a noob gets a fancy battleship after having skipped cruisers, battlecruisers and mid level PVE?

I suppose a better question would have been how long do most players fly small ships when they intend to move on to large ships and ISK is a none issue (if I end up selling plex). I'm not expecting instant gratification here, and I intended to be cautious about whatever I chose to go with.

On the subject, what is more useful in group PVP?; a destroyer outfitted with t2 railguns as a frigate killer, or a cruiser outfitted as a (mediocre at best) rail sniper?

I suppose a better question would have been how long do most players fly small ships when they intend to move on to large ships and ISK is a none issue (if I end up selling plex). I'm not expecting instant gratification here, and I intended to be cautious about whatever I chose to go with.

On the subject, what is more useful in group PVP?; a destroyer outfitted with t2 railguns as a frigate killer, or a cruiser outfitted as a (mediocre at best) rail sniper?

I suppose a better question would have been how long do most players fly small ships when they intend to move on to large ships and ISK is a none issue (if I end up selling plex). I'm not expecting instant gratification here, and I intended to be cautious about whatever I chose to go with.

On the subject, what is more useful in group PVP?; a destroyer outfitted with t2 railguns as a frigate killer, or a cruiser outfitted as a (mediocre at best) rail sniper?

IMO fly frig/destroyer until all support skills are lvl 4 then move up to cruisers or AFs.
Enjoy cruisers as long as you want (personally enjoy cruisers most).
Hop into BC once comfortable in cruisers.
Maybe assault cruiser first, but BC is much cheaper.
Then maybe go back and train for another race to see which you like best (a lot of people like minmatar ships for obvious reasons).
I would wait on BS though since I get personally don't get as much enjoyment above cruiser hull.

Edit: I wouldn't move up hull size without t2 guns. Again, just my opinion.

What people are saying sounds like good advice: get into small ships, work their core and support (gunnery, engineering, electronics, mechanics) skills for a while, until all 4 like my first toon, or all 5 like subsequent ones, then slowly work up to larger ships where the investment in support skills will pay off significantly. This way you don't die and loose all you isk tied up in ships/modules and while earning isk you gain a respect for the economy and valuation of actual items.

HOWEVER

When I was starting, a short two years ago, the standard cry was to pick a class either, armor or shields, and race to battlecruiser 4. This way you can handle any mission levels (4's become hard/impossible and inspire BS training) without breaking the bank on a hull. Most BC have enough slots to fit to deal with small and large ships and provide enough tank. Furthermore, the new tier3 BC's will give you something to immediately test out large weapon systems once trained for, without the need to invest isk/training into BS skills.
This is the route I took, and was pleased with the results. Infuse yourself from the sale of one PLEX (when I did that it was 334mil per plex lol), fit a mission BC, and try to earn the hull price (remember to subtract ammo costs). This will keep the cost/payout for missions relevant.

I decided PvE sucked and jumped directly into a nullsec alliance when I could fly a properly fit T2 BS (amarr born, so abaddon was my first). They usually have opportunities for people who are not ready for fleet-fit ship specs, although they may not be covered under ship replacement. Just go out and fly/die, listen to the FC, learn (for god sake) how to differentiate the words and buttans for "hold" "warp" and "jump" (its apparently harder than it sounds), and you'll have a good time. Plus null PvE can actually support your losses of BC/BS much faster imo than missions.

God my 2c grew to 20isk
I am good investor.

Hope this is the right place to post this.

During my first few days of playing, I elected to go straight for a combat rather than economic roll and after a few low level missions and some ratting I quickly found my favored playstyle was railgun sniping.

Unfortunately I quickly found that among the Caldari ships the best platforms for this were far out of my means and after a brief attempt at mining for it I gave up and left for a few months. However I'm back and plan to sell PLEX or mine to raise the money needed for a Rokh or Naga (and the right fit of course).

My question is would it be wise to purchase a very expensive ship or two without any PVP experience, and limited PVE. Or should I pace myself and practice with a smaller, crappier ship before joining an alliance and jumping into the large PVP battles that I'm looking forward to. I'm worried that i would simply become an expensive and easy target no matter how good my fit.

tl;dr: What happens if a noob gets a fancy battleship after having skipped cruisers, battlecruisers and mid level PVE?