Having a ship stacked to win in combat is essentially just to have enough maneuverability to stay in the blind spot of your primary target, enough shields to tank the rest, a small profile to dodge the bulk of firepower coming at you, and enough weaponry to channel your power plant's capacity and make your target dead.
So the Vulture is just fine, having disproportionately good manueverability married to good shielding and two class-3 hardpoints. It does not have much energy to power those hardpoints, but you'll have no problem staying in their blind spot long enough to recharge and finish the job.
Why worry about fully upgrading that? You're probably good and set at Class C for most enemies.
Personality, I favor an Imperial Courier with either 3 multicannons or 2 multicannons and something big and meaty. The profile of these ships is so small that you can dodge a lot of incoming fire, making that extra-durable shield hard to deplete, especially with boosters. This makes it effective enough for most combat purposes.
