As someone who was once in your position I figured I might chime in and give you my personal experiences. I am also more about flavor, but like a nice cloud too. Tried to start out with an authentic device, but they are generally hard to find (at least hard to find what I decide i want). I just buy high quality clones now. Got tired of searching for authentics. For rdas I started with a plume veil, I soon was searching for something different due to the plume veil's leakyness. Not sure what I went to next, but in my collection of (mostly clone) rda's (I have a plume veil v1 and v1.5, two tohb 2.5s, an infinite clt, a tugboat v2, a stillare, two Zenith v2s, a hcigar legend, and a magma). Out of all of them, I absolutely love my Zeniths, simple design, great flavor, easy to build on, good vapor production, they are hands down my favorite rdas. If I could find a nib authentic I would buy it in a heartbeat, just because I love the clones I have so much, but at the same time, my two clones are very good quality (1:1). Second favorite would be my tohbs, great flavor, clouds for days, a tad bit harder to build on due to the afc tab on the deck, but not bad, it's a bit more prone to leaking though. Third favorite, and I was actually surprised at how much I like this device, is the hcigar legend (it's an hcigar original design I believe, so an authentic device from a clone company). I personally think it looks just a little goofy, but, I get great flavor, good vapor production, and I love the afc design, I get a nice smooth draw from it, it has never leaked on me, it is also really easy to build on. As far as mods go, I started with a cloupor dna 30 clone, it definitely wasn't enough power, hardly ever used the thing, I bought a mechanical mod the same week. I love my mechanical mods, have been using mechs for months now, but recently the loss of performance when the battery gets around 3.8-3.7 volts has been annoying me. So, I have a sigelei 150 watt coming in the mail, probably won't ever need 150 watts, but I found one for about the same price as a sigelei 100 watt plus so I got it. Who knows what the future holds, I probably won't ever need 150 watts, but at least its there if I ever need it. One thing I will mention, make sure to use a high drain battery capable of safely delivering the amount of amps you are asking them to give you. With a device like the sigelei 150, it would be relatively easy to overload your batteries. I use Samsung 18650 25r's since the Sony vtc5s became unavailable/started getting faked, they are affordable, and I find they perform very well, and authentic Samsungs are easily found, but I am careful not to put a load on them that will draw more than 20 amps. Hope this helps.