The leveling just got worse...

That's exactly what I see.

To Heroes without Power Stance yet: can you guys test the exp in El Nath PQ? I remember when I first got 4th job, I trained in El Nath PQ and was getting 20-25% an hour on 1x from levels 121 to 128. The Crimson Balrogs in there gave huge amounts of EXP relative to their HP. Right now, Fiel's chart of mob stats shows that the Crimson Balrogs in there give 5k exp for only 50k HP, which is way better than Gallos. Unfortunately for me, I decided to finsih the Power Stance quest and cannot enter the PQ anymore without being in a party of a Power Stance-less Hero.

I'd have to log on my DrK to check for sure, but I think Stance is an auto skill now, no more quest, no more PQ.