Plasma web is a dot ability - it goes through obstactles, all it needs is a target lock and range.
It’s great against things that try to cloak, or take a beacon, or are almost dead and try to get away.
It really does look weak compared to overdrive on gunships or warp on recons, or even the ecm metastase - but together with what CO has to offer in speed and manouverability and damage output, it becomes a rather handy spell for certain situations. The power is more in the summary of abilities here, not the special module. Also because you have more room for survival modules.
I personally find it hard to say which ships someone should start with. If someone immediately says, he wants to fly fast and dodge, and pew pew stuff, I would go ceptor first, fed healer and gunship second, and probably go more jerri later (command, tackler) and emp in the end. That was me once.
If someone likes to go with the team, dish out damage, and has good aim, i would suggest emp first. Their ships are great team players.
If someone tends to go frig first, i tend to try to get them out of the comfort zone, not to become too dependant on tank and focus on the healers more - there the fighter is indeed a good thing to learn. For some I do understand, that ceptors are too fast gameplay, there the emp ceptors really have a lot to offer, as you can fill the most important support ceptor roles, without worrying about too much speed, which you can even learn to turn against your opponent. The only shipclass I advise to learn last is actually LRF, while for tackling i advise to first learn all fighters and ceptors, to know your best impact, because it’s subpar to be the 6th gunship like tackler in a team. These are also the two worst captain picks.
If someone does not really have preference at all, Fighter is a good start, like, all of them, especially gunships and commands.
So it is a bit also about finding out, where one is strong - but from experience I’d also say, playing something that doesnt work in the start for you doesnt mean, you should leave it. Ships where you do not naturally have a clue, how to play it, are worth research. There I always played without trying to improvise, by copying other players fits.
I mean, you see, it’s really about finding out, where your strengths and interests are vs. the goal of one day understanding all ships in theory.
Btw. I enjoy to read the views of others where to start a lot.