bvent wrote:
Yeah, I get that, but I have a hard time slow ranking.
That's because you have a ton of engineers. More engineers = more energy to do stuff = more XP gained = faster ranking. Put more rank points into tactical officers instead, and you'll have a higher attack while slowing down your ranking.
I am also using a small-ish ship build... I think I was around 450 engineers and 1000 tactical officers at rank 100.