There are two methods for improving weapons and armor that have already been crafted. Item Quality First of all, you should improve the quality of your armor/weapons using a workbench/grindstone. Whiterun has both of these things located at the smith right next to Breezehome. How much your gear will be improved depends on your smithing level. Assuming you have the smithing perk associated with the material of the item you're improving, at level 100 smithing you'll be able to improve your gear to the "Legendary" level (which is the best). Once done, all items that have been improved will be named "xxxx (Legendary)" to signify their improvement. Enchanting This, more than anything else, determines how good your gear is. You can add up to two additional effects on every weapon -- easily doubling the damage you do with every swing. Fortify Archery, One-Handed, and Two-Handed are the best offensive enchantments and should be put on every article of clothing/armor that they can go on (see link below). With 100 Enchanting and perks, you will do +160% damage assuming you have and are wearing the 4 pieces of clothing that can hold these enchantments. If you want to maximize damage, drink a "+32% Fortify Enchanting" potion before enchanting the 4 pieces to achieve +188% damage. See this page for enchanting effects. If you do both of the above things, your character will have little issue taking anything the game can throw at you. The incidence of dragon attacks is more or less always the same. However, as you level up, stronger dragons will attack you instead of the normal ones. For example, now that you're seeing elder dragons, you will no longer see the normal, weaker variety. Some places, like the College of Winterhold / Winterhold, do seem to have a higher rate of dragon attacks than others.