Display bug, 716 - 1056 is actually 71.6 - 105.6 if you check the tooltip.

I'm sort of in the same boat as you, where I played full shield tech from level 10 but got a bit bored of the slow kill speed. My Current Build at level 40 is this one: ST(19)/AP(12) Somewhat similar to what you seem to be going for, unfortunately after testing it a bit the damage increase really isn't all that much compared to full 31pt Shield Tech. Retractable blade isn't much of a damage increase at all by itself without any of it's higher up boost talents. The alternative I tried is something like this one: PT(25)/AP(6) Silly damage from Rail shot, around 1400-1700 damage on crit depending on the target. Also pretty good heat management, only have to use Rapid Shots maybe 1/3 or 1/4 attacks since when railshot proccs it costs no heat and actually vents 8 instead. Survivability does suffers a lot though, and Elites can be tough, though not as tough as two Strong enemies together. Currently the most effective way to level really is to go full shield tech in my opinion, even if you kill a bit slowly there's really nothing that will be too tough for you.

PyroTech is the third tree for Bounty Hunters, shared for both advanced classes.

Am I the only one seeing IGC doing less than 1/3 of the damage it states on the tooltip? It's base damage is apparently 105 energy damage at Rank 1, but every time it proccs it only does about 31 damage no matter the type of mob getting hit. Either all enemies have in the order of 70% energy damage reduction which is highly unlikely, or the tooltip is completely wrong. I read somewhere about removing the IGC icon that gets added to your bars automatically and putting it back on from the Powers/Abilities Window instead and that that should fix the damage discrepency, but it is not working for me.

really nice guide =)