Yep, agreed! I leveled as a Seer even when I was catching up to my guild since I went away for 2 weeks at launch.
Since I was leveling solo, I figured I could at least practice on my companion and learn the best rotations so I'd be ready for end-game content later. It didn't feel slow, though I had no comparisons of course
I also used Qyzen up until 50, he wasn't too bad with DPS, though now I use Nadia.