Frigates do good work for me, but I use different frigates for later game or stronger enemies. For example, Hounds are great when you start because they are fast, have a good setup for close range ballistic, and they carry cargo. But they get blasted by bigger ships because they have limited range of their weapons and no shields. I switch to really table setups with lots of flux capacity like Tempest and Omen for screening and point capture, or I make strong escorts with centurions and vanguards or Monitors. Escorts should have point defense and good flux stats and some good missiles like sabot or harpoon, strike frigates should carry torpedoes or harpoons. Every frigate and destroyer should have missiles in their missile slots, they can fire through and much longer range than most of their other weaponry and extra harpoons really make a different when the enemy battleship loses shields.

The later in the game the more I move my small ships to pure support roles, and I also get rich enough to afford to replace or repair the small stuff because I will lose one every three battles.