I use both stick and mig depending on the job at hand. Proficientcy comes with practice, lots of practice.
Steve
practice is the key to becoming a good at anything
as far which welding process is the best well they've all got their strong points and weak points
most of my welding would be with an ark Welder which you can buy cheap and cheerful even for a fairly large ones my biggest is a 260 air cooled AC which I converted to DC a lovely Welder but not as nice as an old oil cooled
I also have a DC tig and ark inverter with lots of bells and whistles which is by far the nicest of the 2 for ark welding and a very good tig Welder which I'm trying to learn that the moment im also thinking of buying a small mig just for lighter gauge material
I am a member of a diy welding forum and the debate of mig tig and ark
and cheap versus expensive rises it head every now and again but the general consensus is by as good as you can afford
then depending on the type of welding you do determines which type of Welder you should go for
mig the is by for the easiest to learn and very good on light material but they get very expensive for the bigger ones and they are much faster and cleaner than an ark Welder which is important for welding shops
ark is much harder to learn but is very versatile as you can Weld inside and outside and you can pick them up fairly cheaply even the big ones but the expensive ones are by far the best
tig is difficult to learn but you get the best quality of Weld from it. ac tig is the best for welding aluminium but they are ridiculously expensive machines
Well that's more or less my two cents worth the more you practice the better you will get if you don't it doesn't matter what machine you have