Wait, don't rebalance the shields! In my opinion, this makes them on-par with other craft. The frigates tend to die quickly otherwise, as all the JP weapons have high flux cost, and the JP ships tend to overload fast. The shield efficiency is something that makes the ships unique, and I always thought that it was due to having some secret design for better shields or something similarly valuable that allowed the faction to survive.
On another note, I LOVE the Hammer. The inward-angled front hardpoints are COOL, because they limit you from mounting longer-range weapons like Autocannons. The medium missile mounts did kind of bug me, because the medium-sized missile options are not really suited to use against smaller craft (Pilum or Typhoon Reaper). I found that a wondrously-effective solution was to mount Annihilators, and use the extra OP on Extended Shields and Expanded Missile Racks. This worked great in combination with mounting three Dual Light MG's in the ballistic slots. It quickly takes down fighters one at a time, and the Annihilators can be used against practically anything! Combine with Augmented Engines, and you could hunt down faster craft, and tear them to pieces with rockets once the MG's downed their engines.