is lesser reincarnation only useful if one knows what level they first took?

i just ran my 18 ranger 2 fighter through the excercise thinking i took fighter at level 1, and was hoping to achieve an 18 ranger 1 fighter 1 rogue.

alas, i did not take my fighter level at 1, and so am now left with a 17 ranger, 2 fighter, 1 rogue (hurray).

at best i can see myself spending another 1000+ points to simply get things back to the way they were in a weeks time.