The leveling just got worse...

Much worse.
Max exp/hour at skels is about 1/3 what was possible before when 2x and bliz were available.
I haven't gotten to qualm or oblivion areas yet, but unless the spawn rate has been raised a lot, I doubt that will be much better.
I suspect most of the ones saying it aint so bad haven't actually tried training (at high level) yet.

>Ultimate spamming

Of course it's worse than before for mages; you aren't playing easy mode grinding anymore where you can press one button all day for instant EXP. You've been brought down to similar EXP rates as everyone else.