Does 'chirpatine' still work in HAAT?

Just need Chirps at the base requirement to get his leader ability maxed. I use Chirp, EP, Shore, RG, and Sun Fac. Get EP fast enough (180-200+), with dexwnr potency. Shore gets hot enough at furst that RG gains TM to do a stun on the droid add win the buff. Then EP goes. Shore taunts, Sun taunts, Chirpa's turn; use Chirpa's special to call an assist. If it's not EP retreat and keep trying until you do. Once EP gets that assist he will immediately to again (a long as base speed is decent). That means EP has had 3 turns now, so it's easy to get the last 3 droid adds before the big cannon goes off in the back.

Yes, the adds have more health in HAAT, which is nice for some of the good p3 strategies.

The jump in difficulty is staggering though. I think they nerfed it too hard. You can no longer use normal as a guage for Heroic readiness. Then you're stuck in a spot where you need all sorts of rules to make sure everyone has a chance to hit normal, but you can't clear a Heroic.

G11 EP and St Han, G10 RG and SF. Always do atleast a million damage. I've found offense/ crit chance better for EP than speed or potency. I run EP with offense primary arrow and cross. Speed and potency are relevant only till you shock all the adds. Even with max potency, chance to resist, dodge and deflect is always there. Better to concentrate on the rest of the run. At the most, you'll just do a few extra retreats at the start of the run.