While some of the rogues are indeed quite a bit tougher than they were, I do not think this has changed recently. I haven't been in the sewers too recently, though. One thing I noticed yesterday [May 1 2007] was that the forgetful fighter syndrome, where your character decides to stop fighting in combat, was particularly bad. On the bright side it did not seem to affect the npcs so that is a bit of an improvement. It is hard to win a combat if you are just standing there taking blows.