Wtf is going on with the difficulty spikes in this game???

It's a mod check you need pretty op mods to get through I also recomend not using the mods the games recomends those are for the units normal lineup not the event  you want more offense. 

I got through that ridiculous mess this morning before I left for work in conquest. This is what I had to do - My R10 GL LEIA, had to use a speed boosts consumable to be sure that she went first with a 504 speed against a R1 Empire team consisting of Vader at the lead, Palpatine, Thrawn, Piett, and Moff Tarq. They were boosted from overprepared modifier which gave them a whopping 60% increase to health, max protection, offence AND speed on top of whatever boosts they get normally in this "new" conquest on top of Piett boosting speed for the imperial troopers. On top of that they also got boosted from the imperial edict modifier which gave them yet ANOTHER boosts in max health and protection on top of a sweet damage modifier for having an empire ally in leader slot.

Absolutely ridiculous for that level and enemy relic tier. I had to remove Vader first to rid them of the lead modifier but was still outpaced and ended up losing Drogan but was able to resurrect him before they got rolling to pull out a win. That was wayyyyyy to difficult for normal sector 3! Also does relic differential even get taken into account in conquest? It often doesn't seem to from the way they "boosts" the enemies...

The only concept the devs seem to understand is roll the dice.  For years every challenge they've released has basically been just rage inducing RNG fests (see Aphra, GL Leia, BKM, Jar Jar)

Because CG couldn't balance their way out of a wet paper bag.  We are beta testers (even though they have a beta testing team) and they let us test it out for them to see how unbalanced or broken everything is so they can make adjustments later.

Meathead already posted that they're reviewing coliseum balance now, which could mean it'll get harder or easier.

It's the same reason why everything they release for at least the last two years is buggy as all get out.  They don't test systems and expect us to beta it for them.

Let me preface this by asking if the team is clinging on for dear life at 1 HP…

Can you share a screenshot?

for some reason none of my teams can clear the Darth Revan node in CQ on sector 2, at least i've already unlocked the proving grounds but its rather odd that none of my teams (at full stamina mind you) can clear it when i've done previous CQ's with less or no datadisks just fine against a relic3+ DR malak node but not this relic1 node

The Coliseum thing is likely because they just reused the same bosses without testing the new units thoroughly, especially as the team has no leader ability.

You should absolutely be able to beat tier 3 of the challenge with them all above 35. Sounds like a skill issue.

The Conquest thing also sounds like a skill issue, especially if it's on Normal. What is their stamina at? What are your disks? How are your mods? Relic delta isn't active in Conquest yet, so don't expect that advantage.