I actually got into the Head Start and there was for sure a lot of difference before and after the patch. However, it was not impossible to solo, at least for my character. I played around with Force powers and it actually interesting how the AI differs as you level up. Earlier goons used to swarm me and I could just spam my AoE attack. However later level goons would run away as I charged my AoE attack to just outside its radius. With the 'nerf' I need to pull my guys but the range of powers on both sides is so large and enemies clumped quiet a lot, its really hard to do it if not impossible. Invariably you end up aggroing another group.
One more issue I found was that I am constantly running out of missions and quests at my level without leveling up. I was stuck in 18 & 19 for a long long time & did quests 2 levels higher (with a lot of dying of course) just so that I could continue moving ahead. I dont know if this true for everyone but I did a majority of my quests in the desert and the city and then when I went to Canadian wilderness, the NPCs would not give me the low level quests anymore making me miss out on some much needed XP (at least at those levels). I have only hit 20 so far and I am pretty much done with almost all desert quests(upto level 21) & I have so many items which I cannot equip that its not even funny.