Personally, I would say ayawaska.
I have stopped recommending vaped DMT to people, I now think it's something that is best done once a person has already journeyed with aya.
Why? Firstly, because after an ayawaska experience, I believe it's guaranteed that the person will approach vaped DMT with the right attitude, and will have some feeling of what to expect. It is impossible I believe for any newcomer to not underestimate the awe and power of vaped DMT, because the experience is just so unimaginable beforehand. The very thought of that feeling of being ripped out of this dimension and into hyperspace almost immediately even now makes Dreamer want to drop to his knees and bow down to the universe, no joke... and he hasn't vaped to breakthrough in 6 months, maybe approaching a year now. I believe that once you have vaped DMT, the molecule is woven into your very soul and will never leave you. That's just my opinion, I'd be interested if anyone thinks otherwise.
Secondly, because I believe the ayawaska experience to be more useful and healing, as well as gentler up and down. And the visionary stage is only actually an hour long if you've taken a sensible first-timer dose, with a gentle rise and fall, not 6 hours.
I now see vaped DMT as a curiosity and 'next step' for psychonauts who want to really push it, with aya more for general, healing and beginner use. Dreamer started with oral but switched to vaped for a while to avoid introspection and concentrate on energising himself (attempting to cure the lingering effects of suspected chronic fatigue syndrome, and it seemed to work). He is glad he started with oral, and he is now back using oral alone and infrequently now his work with vaped DMT is done.
I think that aya is more likely to give you something positive to take with you if you try it and decide not to do it again. Whereas, I suspect that the people who vape DMT for the first time and don't like it and are scared off perhaps haven't learnt anything, and these people are probably then unlikely to try aya, so an opportunity for positive growth is then lost.
Dreamer's first experience was with 5g rue and 12.5g MHRB (mimosa hostilis root bark), and he found the intensity to be absolutely perfect. That's a medium dose- I think for a strong one people go up to 25g, although personally I don't think I'd want to go up that far. People say aya is gentler than rue, so I would say much better to start with aya. The most common aya experience is I believe with aya and chacruna, but unfortunately weak chacruna can make for disappointment. Though I have never done this myself, if Dreamer were having his first time al over again, he would go for 50g ayawaska with 12.5g MHRB. I have heard it said by a few people that they prefer MHRB, and certainly Dreamer's best experience to date was with MHRB. Shockingly he actually hasn't journeyed fully that many times orally though because he has been hampered by weak chacruna on more than one occasion, in fact he is yet to have a decent chacruna experience unfortunately, though it's in the pipeline and coming up soon. So, I'd be interested to hear what people think of my suspicion that aya+MHRB is the way to go.
This is all opinion, of course, and I am by no means experienced compared to most people on here.
But to be honest even if you take aya before, you still cant be totally prepared for the smoked dmt. The inverse is true too, though, because of the duration of ayahuasca, it can also be many times more challenging than smoked dmt, specially in what concerns a (good) 'forced' self-reflection and personal lessons (at least in my experience). 
