Yeah. Regardless of the West, my current advy is getting beaten and battered far more often recently. I think she was about 75 weapon/75 adventure equipment capped, but apparently you can only go 1% higher than equipment cap (no matter how many times it says you've increased your skill). It's a proper hard cap, not a soft-cap until you buy stuff.
But yeah. Stuff is harder to fight than it's ever been. I've been told that there's no code changes, but it might be the 3 hour room-rest thing (which is essential for active adventurers, but was being looked into), or a tester for the rise of adventurer guilds on Dwilight (it's because Dwilight advies kick arse).
Still. Gonna send someone somewhere. Why not west?