Intermediate Skier - First pair of skis (Rent vs buy a deal question)

Hi All,

I recently got into skiing and based on some great advice here, ended up buying a Tahoe Local Epic pass for next season. I also read a lot of posts about getting fitted for a ski boot as being a great first investment in skiing equipment and have just got fitted for a Dalbello 100 flex by a boot fitter here in the Bay area. I was planning on renting skis next season, however, a friend who is a very good skier said that he's had the "Rossignol Men's Experience 86 Basalt Open Skis" forever and sent me a link to Bluezone where they were available for $354 new (without bindings), which he said was a great deal.

I would consider myself an intermediate (I think?). I can ski greens runs comfortably, ski almost all blue runs (at places like Heavenly, Brighton etc), can do parallel turns but still skidding and not properly carving (also have trouble with powder). Next season, I expect to mostly be doing groomed blue runs, maybe do some black diamond runs and hopefully get better at carving.

My question to this forum is if those skis mentioned above (2024 edition) would be good skis for someone at my level looking to improve or if you'd recommend others (I'm 5’11”; 145 lbs if that matters)? I'm hesitant to get used skis because I honestly wouldn't know what to look for or trust myself to vet the merchandise. Season rentals in my area (Bay Area) seem to run $200 - $300 depending on the skis you go for, so seems like $350 for my own pair would pay for itself soon. Thank you for your help and your suggestions.