They can be at first, definitely a little bit of a learning curve and every rta is different, but once you get it, you can enjoy . I just couldn't imagine dripping tbh, that just seems to be the real pain imo...maybe years ago there was some truth in RDA flavor being best, but now rtas are on par imo. I dont know, but dripping seems like cave man vaping, so like 6 years ago stuff, but to each their own, it's all good