Guess you’ve never flown a dual rep autos-rocket Firetail, Magnate, or Probe.
That’s a great start! Make sure your ship can eventually deal over 140 dps (or talk someone up in local and help each other). You’ll need it for one of the end fights. Also get a spare Thrasher, because there is a dude near the end that neutralizes pretty hard and deals a lot of damage.
As pointed out before, mixing weapon types can be very messy. Focusing on a specific weapon (like Projectiles, with drone and rockets/light missiles as support skills, or Hybrids and drones as another path) will help you get into T2 stuff faster. If you like Faction Warfare, I think the most helpful route is… projectiles? TD Slasher and plated Rifter are great entry-level ships.