It really depends on what role you want your fighter to play. Similar to how a Cobra can be OK at everything but excels at nothing, a fighter can be multirole but you will probably want to build toward your niche.
The Vulture is great for most combat and RES. It's a heavy fighter, and the "Vulture Prime" is basically two C3 Pulses so ammunition is never a problem. The DPS is hefty, too. It's maneuverable for its size and has the ability to ram into ships and deal significant damage while taking little to none itself. The biggest benefit, however, is that it's a lazy ship. One fire group for guns and your FSDI, and one for a KWS on your secondary button, and you do a lot less switching in combat. The two drawbacks with the Vulture, however, are its fittings and its shield recharge rate. The Vulture has powergrid issues because it still has a fighter's grid, even though it fits cruiser weapons and shields. Sacrifices must be made. The biggest issue, however, is the shield recharge rate, at least for PvE. While the Vulture excels at RES, it lacks staying power in fleet engagements like CZ. Multiple hostiles are likely to gang up on one pilot in a CZ, which forces the Vulture to put more pips into Shields, as if the shields drop, the Vulture becomes a death box. Military Grade Bulkheads are actually worth having to ensure time to wake out if this happens.
I use an Imperial Courier for CZ. In Imperial Style, the powergrid is more than sufficient to "A-Out" the ship. Three medium weapons are sufficient, and with the spinal hardpoint fitted with a fixed C2 Beam Laser, shields are easily melted off of targets. This is more of a stunt fighter for long fleet engagements, where it can be more beneficial to "Tag" targets that are close to death than to engage them from their arrival on the field to their demise. It's faster than the Vulture and more maneuverable, so it can close range quickly and escape scrapes. If you lose it, it costs less to replace than the Vulture. The biggest benefit, however, is probably that you get extremely powerful shielding for your money. CZ enemies can gang up on you, and a Courier with Class A shields and even one Shield Booster can outpace a Vulture on damage absorption. I run two Class A boosters on Class A shields and haven't lost shields in a CZ yet. The biggest drawback, for me, is the lack of damage output compared to the Vulture. Not only are the three hardpoints C2, but most fits will require at least two of those be projectile weapons in order to fit the PG. All three may need to be in order to use active shield tanking with the Courier's generous internal fittings.
) and has a lot of character (great engine sound, speed, thruster response), I have both but I think the FDL is more fun to fly, they both need a little more power and the FDL needs a better FSD.
