So I started Dawnguard Monday night and now I am at the point where I am at the castle doing random quests for the two guys I recruited. The beast master just tells me to talk to the leader now. The girl still has me looking for dwemer plans.

Well last night I was looking for a fourth set of plans for her (shock bolts) and was sent to a dwemer ruin. I couldn't help but note that some of the Falmer looked completely different. In addition to that some had a new kind of Falmer armor to pick up. Added to that the Dwemer centurions now have shock bolts in their loot.

What exactly has changed here and are these changes for all dwemer ruins now or just this one I was sent to (Nchuand-Zel in Markarth).

What is this new armor? Is it any good?

Are there other things like this changed in the vanilla game?

Thanks!

You found the armor, you should know if it's good

There are two new versions: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Falmer_Hardened_Armor and http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Falmer_Heavy_Armor. They look the same, but the heavy one is better.

Yes, you can find them everywhere the Falmer live. There are other places like this: most notably some vampire lairs are now populated with gargoyles.

Blackreach has also had a few recent additions, and I think they may hatch soon
My only character to enter Blackreach with Dawngaurd found 1 new Falmer Mage with a Falmer Staff, but no Falmer had the Armor. My character is too low levelled to probably trigger the additional Cocoons, and every Sphere Centurion has been dropping Dwemer Bolts as loot.
There are a few different varieties of Falmer added by Dawngaurd, and some of them do not look like a Falmer, or an Unchanged.

All that sounds like great news! I'll really have to make a character interested in Dwemer and Falmer ruins... since I'm really getting interested myself.

Looks like Heavy Falmer armor has the stats of Steel Armor, with a little less weight, and obviously different looks.

Ugly as sin to be honest. I think I'll stick with my Steel Plate for now, though I am thinking about trying out the heavy Dawnguard armor. I wore the Wolf armor the whole time I was doing the Companion's quests so it only makes sense I suppose to wear the Dawnguards now. I just got to figure out how to get it.

You can buy it from Gunmar (or whatever the "beastmaster"s name is). A full set of dawngurad armor also gives you a 25% protection against life drain spells and vampire attacks, so it's good when doing the dawnguard quests

I think it's nice. We finally have some Elven-style heavy armor sets.

It's enchanted? Dang I can't upgrade enchanted stuff yet (Smith skill is 53). Oh well.

No, it is not enchanted. In fact, you can enchant all the pieces except the helmet.

After recruiting Gunmar and returning to the Fort Dawnguard, Gunmar will give light DG guantlets, light DG boots, and heavy DG armor. You can purchase heavy versions of the helmet, boots, and guantlets from him.

As to the OP, there are many new types of critters added by the DLC, new higher level enemies, and for the Falmer, female versions as well as male. Falmer staves also look different than normal staves.

I improved the light set without the Arcane Blacksmith perk. (I only had Smithing at... 59 )

Edit: Ninja'd.

It adds also female falmer.