It was certainly tough when I did it before the update and I thanked my lucky stars that I maxed out everything, including my king, before making the leap. Nothing was as hard as becoming a new TH9 imho.
The new way to do it seems to be to just push as far up in trophies as you can, but don't roll insane armies to do it. My current army consists of 20 giants, 4 healers, 14 wizards and 4 wallbreakers, with 1 rage and 3 heal spells. You may have to look a bit for a good base to hit but they are there.



