I like stick because there is nothing like the satisfaction of a beautiful bead. Like Worth said MIG/TIG is better in shop environments (cylinders and the like for MIG/TIG; though fluxcore, like stick, can be done anywhere). Anything you will want to build heavy duty you will want to do with stick. See duty cycle note below.
If I were just starting out, I would go with a
Harbor Freight MIG/Fluxcore w/ a 20% off coupon. You may know this but for those new, it comes down how well the machine spools and the duty rating (Rule of thumb, 20% duty rating means it can run continuously for 20 min out of an hour). Point is: no one wants to fuss with wire kinking, breaking on its way to the gun and no one likes making three tacks and waiting a half hour to do one pass.
Everlast has some bomb multiprocess machines. Not American made but well built.