The game certainly got easier again with the 1.3 patch. Now, provided you have got the appropriate resistance gear equipped, a dragon or a hostile mage won't reduce health to zero in seconds. I can't really say I'd have noticed too many other changes, apart from dragon not flying backwards anymore. I see keep losing them, though, because they are so hard to hit in the air and they never seem to be hostile unless you hit them once. Unless they are attacking some town or other target that isn't the player.