I was about to quit swtor, because I was playing madness sorc, and he is dying faster then I can sneeze, always been playing mages, never even looked at melee, so sorc is my only option here. And then I decided to try lightning, and man, it's like night and day. I am even able to tank some players.

Long story short, buff madness/balance specs in survivability. I hope new xpack will bring that. It's a very fun spec and maybe I'm doing something wrong, but for poo's sake, buff it. Thank you.

If you are talking about pvp you are not doing anything wrong madness is the worst spec bye a long shot atm in pvp

it never recoverd from some of the nerfs it recieved a few patches ago

If you want to pvp as a 'caster' merc is your best shot atm