If a person attacks someone over 20 ranks lower then them is this strategic or cheap.
I was attacked last night be someone 20 ranks higher then me twice.
10 hours, 34 mins ago
**** ****** attacked you and set off your Omicron Mine Trap!
7 hours, 46 mins ago From: **** ******
Your ship has been disabled by **** ******!
View Your Ship
I personally think that this is cheap but at the same time I don't really care.
If this is strategic then maybe I should assume that out of his 639 player kills most if not all were little guys and this guy just wants to bring his battle rep up more, already at insane. Personally I'll attack in a 10 rank range up or down and even that seems a little rough.

I wouldn't call it cheap, per se. It would depend entirely on his personal habits, when attacking others. Does he ONLY attack those who are 20 levels lower? Is that all he does all day? We'll probably never know. But, like you said, it's not THAT big a deal. He didn't raid you, I presume.

Whatever the cause, remember this:

Sometimes, all of your options on the battle page suck.

He could've tried but since I don't leave anything in my cargo bay would've failed regardless. I did look at the leader board and noticed this guy is ranked number 3 overall for kills.

He may just kill whomever for the fun of it.

Lvl doesn't mean much. And in Galaxy legion, everyone can fight everyone, assuming they accept the consequences.

Heh, right. I am quite capable of taking down 100+ rank players over my rank level. So.. that proves that rank doesn't mean much.. It just depends on how players design their ship.. Some are pro-PVP.. some go pro-resource production, etc.. Pro-pvp players are ones with tougher ships than average based on their level..

I had seen one player used lot of CC to gain 100 ranks in very short time while his tech stayed the same and I was able to enjoy more reward (higher RP per hack and higher disable exp) fighting him and he threw in white flag too fast so I stopped.. Balance is the powerful thing.. Rank isn't everything.. Funny thing is even though he is 100+ level higher than me, he told me that it was unfair and I was bigger than him and called me bully.. I rather found it funny... I actually enjoy fighting much higher rank players simply cuz it's more rewarding but they always threw in white flag too fast so none lasted long. ;(

By the way, several time when I get Halcyoned by attacking someone like you saw before.. I actually disabled him/her and got halyconed at the same time simply because he had very low defense and no hull where halcyon trap won't protect you from getting disabled.. Increase hull/shield will make halycon trap to work better.

Im a level 69 with a balanced ship(mainly weapons though, I put combat modules in leftover space) and a level 93 hacked me and I pummeled him with 150 damage a shot.

I wish I could do that sort of damge but I don't even against ligthly defended NPCs.

I wish I could fit all 8 allowable weapons modules, plus the ones from tier and and NPD drops, but 200 deck space for weapons does not leave much space for defense, shield and hull modules that enable me to stay in the battle. Its amazing how quickly the other 150+ decks get filled.

Getting back to the point of the article; for me it is strategy to look for viable targets, regardless of rank, that I can disable "quickly".

I find that if I take my sensors offline the average rank of targets offered to me drops by about 20 ranks. My current list of targets are all lower rank than myself, having just hacked the one higher than me. The new target was 15 ranks lower than myself, very weak weapons, 2 tiers below mine but with a full compliment of reactors a tier above mine.

An easy hit that I hoped to clear off my target screen but it stayed there even after raiding it.

If you mean by cheap, tactical - no point in cripling myself to prove a point, then yes it was cheap (in energy, repair and experience [average return compared to missions and I received an artifact to enable me to do a mission]).

I would also claim it as strategy; to clear my target screen, to get alternative targets.

Another cheap tactic I expect to get flamed for is hunting for targets with few legion partners. My experience of playing MMOs is that those that don't join a legion (alliance) don't take their play seriously enough and are therefore not likely to have organised their game persona (ship) adequately to defend themselves.

Its an education or wake up call to shake up and get serious. If you are not prepared to learn from forums and other players ...

Right now I have set attack and Def number goals. A cut off point so I know when to move on. When I am done I should have the ability to take out lightly armed NPCs and not feel much pain. But I will not stop adding/upgrading my ship. I need to improve stealth, energy, and start readding sensors back onto my ship.

So many goals and not enough time to do them all at once.

I'm rank 117
I never really cared for fighting/disabling
Unfortunately I now have several missions that require kills/disabled and hacks. So I'll probably go for the easiest one I can find to make the numbers so I do the mission.
Personally I could care less if someone disables me while I'm offline.
I never store minerals so they don't get stolen.
I had maybe at most 1000 research points stolen but it's pretty meaningless when I need 45,000 minimum for the level in my research tree.
What I do care about is critical hacks revealing planets. So I put most of my decks into scanning to prevent a critical hack when offline. Back between rank 20-40 I had my best planet revealed and then stolen because of a critical hack.