Latest space battle wisdom?

I played a bit at launch and recently started again. For space battles I always used to use the phase beam because it auto-aimed, and with a few mods it was super effective. But these days there seem to be some bad guys I can't lock onto, and I've been dying occasionally. Also, there are new weapons on offer in the Nanite booths.

Who's got some state-of-the-art wisdom on mowing down them pirates? Thanks in advance.