My fully decked out level 54 Nord with +50% frost resistance just died 3 times in one ice breath from an ancient dragon on masters difficulty. I only have enough time to shoot off one poisoned arrow before he bites it. This game's dragons are giving me an adrenaline rush again! Tactics like Impact and shouts are actually going to be mandatory this time.

you are *not* supposed to stand in its breath and take it?

Get behind terrain? Or just becomes ethearal.

Yes, that's the idea behind dragons and breath weapons all along. However prior to the latest patch my Nord could tank any dragon's breath weapon with 50% frost and 43% fire resistance. The key point here is Beth might have been monitoring the feedback and realize what Penny Arcade wrote here is valid satire:

http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/11/09

I'm sure most of us felt the same way. Why are dragons easier to kill than giants in a game whose greatest selling point is to fight dragons?

edit: actually scratch that. It seems the new patch broke 2 things: magic and elemental resistances are ignored for some reason. Thanks Beth, thought for a minute you are doing a fine job there. Apparently you did a fine job of messing up perfectly fine game play mechanics.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1295737-game-no-longer-recognizes-my-magic-resistance-after-patch/