Difficulty spike from 2 to 3

So is it just me or is there a large difficulty spike from tier 3 difficulty to tier 3 bigger than tier 1 to 2 or tier 3 to 4?

Seems like the amount of elite spawns, the damage soak, is turned up to 11.

3 seems to be where you actually have to know the game, rather than playing it like any other shooter. It really punishes lack of teamwork.