I am rank 63 and my ship stats are as follows:
energy- 215
hull- 1459
shield- 179
attack- 866
defense- 662
scan- 7
cloak- 28

producing:
minerals- 289 units/hr
artifact- 178 units/hr
research- 378/hr

How am i doing so far? Do i need to improve one thing more than the everything else?

Your productions should always keep going up.

Knowing your research tree is of great use, your playstyle also and finally, your ship lay-out.

If you aren't in a well-established legion, join one. We're accepting recruits, if you're interested. 25k artifacts a day, everyday.

Not to be mean or anything, I am rank 66 so not that much higher than you. First, like thunderbolta said, get your production higher. You attack and defense is fine for now but might want to get more hull. You should get those proteans and dominions as quickly as you can. What is your ship size?
I recommend an artifact legion, helps a lot. If you are in search of one, join our one. Xenobytes. A level 6 base with 50k artifact a day and about 5k research.

My size class is heavy battle ship and space a the moment is 480/495. right now i have 3 dominion cannon mark 2 and 1 dominion cannon. working on getting the 4th mark 2. i have 1 protean armory and working on getting another.

mark II doms are a waste. you're better off going from mark I's straight to the mark III's

And yes, higher production is always better. How far along are you on the planetary structures branch?

like chiaroscuro said, dom IIs are a waste IF you are planning to increase your deck size or rank regularly. if you plan on slow-ranking or staying with the decks you have, the dom IIs are still the most efficient weapons you have available to you. but at your production level, slow-ranking does not gain you much, and you are already too big to aim for a medium-ship build.

so, i have no ship advice to add to what others have said ... you will need to research better planet structures and colonize a few better planets.

On the planetary structures branch, I am on hyperspheres.

As everyone is pretty much saying, get your resources higher. Research and artifact are the most important at your level. When you get to a higher level, around 150, focus on artifact. Dont worry about mining too much, your legion should fund you (if they don't, Hand of Vengeance has plenty of creds!). Dominions mark 2 are a waste, work on saving for mark 3s. Other than that, I'd say your ship is fine.

your resource production has to go up. a goal i set for myself was to have 1k production in each category by rank 100. artifact is the most important resource so getting that up is very important. for the most part try to colonize planets that are at least large and rich. your attack and defense seem decent for your rank but try to get that hull up a bit. like chia said mark 2s are wastes of reds. most people i know go strait from mark 1s to mark 3s or they save up reds until they get to rank 100 and get the 3s then.