I only came in after CMS, but in my opinion, the same group has pretty much had the monopoly on everything since I started 7 years ago. When I started, I don't think I had full TAed laen until maybe 1.5 years after I started, I didn't even have a forged staff and was 18 combat. At that time though, there were things to do for me other than power level. When you're power leveling, you need the best equipment, or you simply can't level as quickly as you'd like.