Powershot does not seem to be working as advertised.
I waited for a full aim and got the following:
With a loud twang, you let fly your pulzone!
Your steel-tipped pulzone lands a hard (6/23) hit to a rock troll's right arm!
The steel-tipped pulzone lodges itself shallowly into the rock troll!
Using a full aim and just a regular fire I'm getting much higher damage:
Driving in like an unbeatable force, you fire a steel-tipped pulzone at a rock troll. A rock troll fails to evade, taking the full blow.
The pulzone lands an awesome (13/23) strike that tears a small piece of skin from the left calf.
The steel-tipped pulzone lodges itself shallowly into the rock troll!
[You're solidly balanced with opponent in better position.]
[Roundtime 1 sec.]
Also, powershot is not consuming the aim. If I'm fast enough I can reload and get a fully aimed shot without having to aim again. At first I thought it might not matter if I aim or not, but I missed all of my unaimed powershots, so it seems to be at least factoring in.
Oh, and the help for powershot shows the help for cleave instead.