I made it as far as page four before I had to log in and mention this. The preponderance of morons going on and on and on about sorcs not having big nukes and therefore not having competitive DPS are going to have to clean their brains off the ground when damage meters come out and most reasonable specs are within 5-6% of each other when played correctly. Although I hate to be "that guy," the shining example of how ridiculously stupid that line of reasoning is has to be the affliction warlock in WoW. That class has just one ability that's comparable to the type of damage of nuke-based classes (Bane of Doom, if you're curious, a 60 second duration DoT with 15 second ticks), yet that spec of that class consistently parsed within 1-3% of the top DPS classes throughout the past year+ of crapaclysm when played correctly. There's always a chance that, for completely unrelated reasons, sorcs will be underpowered, but that would be because their damage is not tuned properly or they aren't being played properly by the majority of the playerbase, not because the individual nukes do not hit as hard as other classes. The ability to cast nukes while DoTs are ticking is, in the most oversimplified sense of the design, the reason the sustained DPS is competitive. If all you're doing as a sorc, especially Madness, is casting nukes... it should suffice to say that the class balance is not the issue. Edit:ed the word "just" into the sentence about BoD for clarity's sake

I can almost guarantee that barring extreme circumstances, the problems arise in simply not knowing how to properly gear and use your character. I'm sure you're capable of executing that knowledge, as are most people, once you gain it =P Know what your stat weights are and don't blindly equip higher rated gear. If Aim is your primary stat and you find gear with Strength on it, it doesn't matter if it's rated 100 levels higher, it's still going to be a downgrade for a DPS character. The only stats that matter are going to be stats that directly improve your DPS, once again barring extreme circumstances that may not even exist in this game. As far as knowing how to play your character, just read suggestions you can find online. Once you find out what some of the top players are doing to maximize DPS, healing, etc, you'll start to really understand why they do the things they do and it will all start to be second nature as you progress. What makes SWTOR and other MMO's difficult isn't the execution, but the learning. Don't quit though, it's worth it =D