4.

i would take a look at the tengu. over 1000 dps and a brick tank. then she is so flexible with the subsystems.

A Jackdaw, Drake or Raven are all viable options with different advantages/disadvantages. The Drake and Raven are pretty versatile PvE ships and you can't go wrong with either. The Jackdaw is far less versatile for PvE but comes with the advantage of being a good PvP ship if you're ever so inclined. If it were me, I'd get the Drake and then move up to a Raven later.

I'll throw one more option out as well. If you want to delay going Omega a bit longer, you can run L3s in a Gnosis (a BC without skill requirements, so an alpha can fly it).

4) Any other ship/skillplan

IGÇÖm currently testing a Gila in L4 missions on a low SP alt and so far the results are great.

For the Gila you need to have Caldari and Gallente cruiser skills (I trained both to L5), missile skills, drone skills and support skills (powergrid, cpu, tank, etc.). Gallente cruiser is worth it and you need the other skills anyway.

Using an omni buffer tank, an AB, Rapid Lights with faction missiles and mission specific T2 medium drones, I come close to 90k EHP before overheat and 700dps while being cap stable and with most skills at 4 and only a few skills at 5. So far the tank is more than sufficient and the ship is actually fun to fly, even in missions.

Absolutely no reason a Raven can't do L3s - it's just not as optimal as something smaller like a Drake. Plus, I think the isk savings of having just one ship for L3s and L4s is a bit illusory. A Raven is much slower than a Drake and won't apply damage to the smaller ships in an L3 as well, thus reducing your isk/hr. You can also sell the Drake when you're done with L3s and apply that to an L4 missioning ship, so you lose very little. It also reduces your out of pocket expenses now.

That said, I don't want to talk you out of a Raven if that's what you want. It's a perfectly viable option.

That's something I didn't consider. I love the Gila as a ship (any Guristas ships to be honest), but I wasn't sure if I could train up to a high enough Gallente cruiser level quickly to use it properly.

I'll definitely take a look. Thanks!

Id say go drake or a cruiser anyways, better application on the more numerous small targets

Also you didnt deal with the gate restriction issue...

Not an issue. L3 gates allow everything up to T2 battleships.

Gila is a fun ship and level 4 capable but it has a very high entry point SP wise and it is not even close to the best option.
If you are looking cruiser class ships the Ishtar can be a better option, what little it gives up to the Gila in some areas it more than makes up for with the larger drones bay and bonuses to all drones not just to the mediums. Perhaps the best reason to go Ishtar is sentry drones which the Gila cannot use effectively due to small drones bay and insufficient control band width.

Are you looking at what you can do once you've gone Omega, or at what you can do now as an Alpha? If the latter, I think you're looking at level 3 missions at best, and at, as someone upthread suggested, a Gnosis, which is the only BC you can fly. Another possibilty is a Navy cruiser (whichever one(s) are available to your race). Once you start doing that, you might look at what you need to train for ships not currently available to you. Most of the "mastery" skills for any subcapital (except large weapons) you should already have, but there may be some holes to fill in. Once you go Omega, of course, you can train whatever you need. Racial BC if you're still doing L3s, or Racial BS if you want to go to fours. Alternatives for 4s: T3 cruiser, HAC, Marauders. You can cross-train other racial ships, which will also give you faction ships, but that can take a while, particularly if you're not interested in actually flying the lower level ships, but just want to get to lvl 4s ASAP. As to which is "best", that's really a matter of personal preference. I've never had any problem sticking to the T1 progression Michael DeCrimson mentions above.

I believe RLMLs on a gila do indeed have better application than RHMLs on a battleship... your point?

Also you didnt deal with the gate restriction issue...

Isn't Ishtar more SP-demanding than Gila? Besides the basic support skills, for Ishtar, you need Gallente Cruisers (where V is a must), Energy Grid Upgrades (V must), HACs, Light Drones Operation, Heavy Drones Operation/Sentry Drones Operation, totally 19x; for Gila, you need Caldari Cruisers, Light Drones Operation and Medium Drones Operation, totally 8x, or plus Light Missiles and Gallente Cruisers if you also want to use missiles, totally 14x.
And you don't need sentry drones and range tank on a cruiser, because you can speed tank those battleships well. If you're using Ishtar in lv4s, heavy drones are better because of both better basic damage and better damage bonus.

L3 missions are ridiculously short. You should take a ship that warps around quickly because that will take as much time as it will to kill any rats at the sites. And something else to do on the side because some missions will have you wait around for spawns.