Hey, I hear you about the whole getting into the rda and rebuild thing being a bit scary. I too had thought of it as some wild beast that required a degree in rocket science. Found out though it is anything but that.
One thing which helped me is a buddy named Russ. He uses the handle Super X Drifter. You can check out some of his videos
https://www.youtube.com/user/sxmxdrifter which offer very clear instructions. He doesn't fool much on the issue of clouds or flavor, being about middle of the road. He also does not present the tutorials in away that seems to belittle anyone. Russ talks clearly, slowly so you can understand what's going on.
You will want to get an ohm meter, preferably one separate from a mod. I build the rda decks
install the coils while the deck sits in the meter. This way I can get a good idea what the coils read before putting them on a mod. A good range I find to stick in is 0.6 to 1.8 ohm. You'll soon find though you can sub ohm easily enough. What you need to keep in mind is battery safety. A buddy with the handle sonicbomb offers a good posting about it.
https://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/blog-entry/battery-safety.7565/ Read the posting and follow the links, read some more.
Once you get a grasp on the basics you'll be alright with a Velocity, or Velocity styled deck. They are easy to build on. TEMCo sells Kanthal A-1 resistance wire at a fairly affordable price.
VAPING SUPPLIES - WHERE TO BUY
BATTERIES
Only buy batteries from a reputable supplier (not ebay or Amazon) as there are
many counterfeit batteries being sold. Here are several reputable battery
suppliers in the US.
RTD Vapor <
http://www.rtdvapor.com/ >
Illumination Supply <
http://www.illumn.com/ >
Orbtronics <
http://www.orbtronic.com/>
IMR Batteries <
https://www.imrbatteries.com/ >
Liion Wholesale <
http://liionwholesale.com/ >
RESISTANCE WIRE
Buy quality resistance wire from reputable supplier/s only.
TEMCo Tower Electronics Manufacturing Company
Kanthal A1 Resistance Wire
Start with 28 gauge. It works fairly easy.
Look up
Vapor Whale as a good online vendor for hardware. You may also want to look up
Discount Vapers,
Mt. Baker Vapor,
Vapor 4 Life.
These are some good moderate priced vendors. You should be able to find a good path from here.