You could go sorta middle of the road and purchase a Silver Bullet. Customer service is great, upgrade to use with a kick if you desire. I'm not sure why it doesn't get much respect around here, excellent price and quality.
The SB has always gotten respect. It was the best there was for a long time. It's just somewhat of a dated design now is all. It's an 18650 mod that is the same size as most modern 26650 mods.
In the end you will want both a good mechanical and a good VV/VW. Doesn't matter all that much which you get first.
My first upgrade was the SB, but that was over three years ago. What it did was give me a reliable foundation PV that I could count on, and that allowed me to buy another PV every six months or so without having to worry so much about it being a good choice or not. I've always had that old SB to fall back on if I didn't like the new one. The SB is still here, and works just fine even tho' I probably now have a dozen PVs that I like better.
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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif] I think the only one I've seen mostly good things is a Nemesis clone?
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That's funny, because the Nemmy, IMO, has more quirks than almost any other mechanical. Even my old Mako is a better designed mechanical (just not as pretty, and yes, I have a Nemmy)
Ironically, my Kayfun is sitting on top of my Nemesis with a Kick-2 in it, and my Provari is busy powering other things. [/FONT]