My strategy has been to put my character's back against the wall of the steps and just outlast her. It may take a while, but it's doable.
I don't think it needs to be nerfed. It should be challenging.
Since she's originally a Smuggler companion her customization was not available from the reputation vendor on the Imp fleet. You'll find it on the Pub Fleet vendor.
Wrong. The outfit was bugged on certain female body types. So OP thought that the bugged version was how it should look, but it wasn't. So OP was confused when the bug was fixed.