I noticed in creative that he attacks you when he's flying straight. Would it be hard to hit him (and disorient him) with the sword? Or are arrows the only possible thing to disorient him in survival cause swords hits are risky?

I'd go with the arrows, just in-case he gets close enough to knock you off a tower.
Also, the sword works wonders on Endermen, which is why I'd suggest bringing two (at least)

Well I found the portal, it's too far away, I had to run back cause I didn't have enough ender eyes to fill the empty gaps.

I now have more than 64 arrows, and while at night hunting for endermen, I'll most definitely come across skeletons for some arrows.

Oh and once I beat the dragon, would that mean that I can go to the end whenever I want, and return back whenever I want since there will be a portal?

As it turns out, you can go back, but no new dragon will spawn.

Well damn :< I just spent a whole night outside, used 3 stone swords but didn't spot one single enderman. On the bright side, I now have 2 full stacks of arrows

oh man i found enderman but he teleported like a bitch... and a freking creeper blowd my backyard!!
my mine is so cool its so complex!

I found my first stronghold on the server i play on a few days ago

Oh dang Deadly this is the first post i've ever seen you post :3

Anyways I found one on creative and I was like WHY COULDNT I FIND THIS ON SURVIVAL D: and I didnt use ender eyes either

DEADLYBASH ;-;

Y U NO POST MOAR

Chaco, I know the feeling. I found a stronghold in my main world far away without using ender eyes, but guess what, it didn't have a portal. Though I did find an apple back when they were extremely rare.

Now I found a second one using the ender eyes, still need more of those eyes to activate the portal though, and that will take a while.