We've all been there. You open your battle tab, and it's the same old people. All insane. All 100 ranks above you. All could probably kill you in less than 50 energy.

Most people I know carry the minimum 6 scan around with them, to avoid assassins, collectors, the like. But this hurts you in PvP.

The way most ships become tanks in PvP is they SACRIFICE cloak for attack, or defence. Because they probably only have about 6 cloak themselves, they always show up.

My advice. Do you want some targets that you can actually handle? Drop 1 gun, or a reactor. Install a scanner. Use a subspace and a tachyon. Suddenly, your BT will fill up with SIMILAR RANKED, SIMILAR LEVEL ships, and even sometimes what I'd call a "hack" build - At rank ~200, thats 4 heavy sings, 2 microgel - nexus armour, and a whole load of scan and cloak. These are 5 hit kills. Usually less.

They say drop scan for combat. Do the opposite for PvP. More scan = more variety and easier targets. for the cost of 250 attack, or 239 max energy, and 15 energy for scan artis, your life will be so much easier.

I know this isn't really an option for high rankers, but for ranks 100-250, This works like a dream. At least for me.

I have a better method.

Enter your battle tab with minimum scan, look for energy builds
Add a small amount of scan, check again
Add some more, check again
And so on, so forth.