And on what it was meantioned that techs got so little hp...they don't actualy smugglers only have 1,5 more and mercs 2x more hp than tech of the same lvl. But then when we take into account shields tech can be as tanky when it come to raw amount of dmg it can soak as merc or smuggler. Plus as long shields not go offline right after fight he's as good as new with fully charged shields
There are one small problem - you can't cover your shield with armor, unlike HP, and most shields are only resistant to kinetic, other resistances coming at cost of vulnetabilities. Also, techs have little to no profit from resistance accessories, for the same reason.
Also, Second Wind effectively adds extra 50% to HP, so you can assume that mercs have 3 times more HP than techs.