Nah, that tactic with singling them out by creating distance is probably the easiest way with most ships. You could also build a corner ship so there’s nothing in its middle (the ship builder interface will always have it’s center in ship’s center of mass) - the AI aims for the middle of your ship, so if there’s nothing there, they can’t hit you. That way you’re going to be able to avoid most hits and have enough time to regenerate your shields between the hits they manage to connect.

Safe travels.