meh don't really care about the companion gear. I only use the tank guy or the dps guy on my sorc. I keep the tank at good gear and the other as ok. the rest I have doing crew skills pretty much the entire time.
Because the companions are based on your base class, not your advanced class.
For example, a Jedi consular can become DPS, Tanking, or Healing. They need to have enough companion configurations to compliment your solo playstyle, as well as your role in a group of 2. Also, I feel that the companions' stories/personalities are one of the more interesting elements of replay value.
Stop playing with bads is all I am thinking about. Flashpoints and heroics are worthless by yourself. They take more time and give less xp unless you have a readily available group willing to knock them all out at once. If you're doing it by yourself and asking in general chat, you inevitably get retards and the mission would take twice as long as if you had someone you know.
With the ability to buy mods/enhancements/hilts, I never needed to do any heroics on the different planets.
I would suggest you also do a good deal of PvP if you like your class. Being Valor Rank 50 by the time you hit 50 would be HUGE. 50-60 is a grind, but going from 30 or 40-60 is rather brutal. I hit 50 about 1.5 weeks ago and I'm at 53 now, and that's because I PvP almost exclusively. At 60, you have access to pretty much kick ass gear that is definately comprable to most PvE encounters in the game.
One of the biggest mistakes I made was focusing too much on PvE content while leveling, and not enough on getting my ranks up. When I get around to leveling my sentinel again, I plan on doing a lot more PvP and a lot less of PvE sidequests.
You are not doing your class quests or something?
The robot is also one of your companions.
There is no way you're doing 1500 xp per kill in a heroic 4+ content. A heroic mob gives 1300 as it is. You were pulling probably 3k+ a kill. Otherwise, getting a level means you were in there a long ass time hehe.