[Fishing] Changes to sea serpents??

[Boogieman]

Just yesterday I went to do some fishing and to my surprise I almost got magic arrowed to death by the sea serpents !?
I didn't have any problems killing the serpents a month ago - three e-bolts and bye bye. Now I get interrupted by magic arrow, and can only get off the lowest level of spells - it gets kinda tedious killing sea serpents with magic arrow. I'm just glad I didn't go and pull up any deep sea serpents.

And don't come and tell me I have to invest 15 mill gold worth in artefacts, FC/FR gear and whatnot to kill sea serpents.

 

[Basara]

It's been that way for me for 4 years.

My fisher is my primary mage; 120 magery/120 eval/100 resist, all 70s suit with 40% LMC, 100% LRC and 4/6 casting (well, 2/6 these days) - and I can't get spells off against serps unless I have protection up.

I finally said the heck with it, started fishing from the plank, and use disarm and rearming UO Assist macros to drop my pole and equip a mage weapon, and BEAT the things down (in fact, I ended up eventually becoming a quasi-warrior/mage as a result, adding 80 Chiv and GM Tactics - I get more DPS, without having to worry about mana issues at group peerless, with a SC mage weapon bow, and use all my mana to keep the pet that's tanking the peerless alive with GH, cures and dispelling the revenants)

 

[Boogieman]

Ok - so nothing new I guess. I was just surprised, because I ahev recently trained the char to GM and he didn't have any problems dropping the odd serpent once he hit 80 skill. Maybe I've had protection cast on him...

I have been thinking about taking up swords and tactics - guess it's even more appealing now.

 

[Thiefy/Glorfiedel]

i precast always a demon and tell him to guard me, then i fish, till he disappear, and recast the demon.

 

[ZippyTwitch]

Yes serpents have had magery for a long time.

 

[Basara]

And they are obsessed with the fastest spells. Until they dump all their mana, it's almost impossible to get a spell off against them unless you have protection up, unless they cast something that isn't targeting you (buffing themselves).

 

[Vertigo]

I just use protection at all time on my fisher mage when fishing.

Nothing special... 100 mage 110 eval snake slayer spellbook. dead serpent with 2 ebolts.

 

[Boogieman]

Yes, I think I unknowingly have had protection cast during my training time and then turned it off before my near-death experience.

Yes serpents have had magery for a long time.

I'm aware of that - what was new to me was the change in their preference to shower you with magic arrow. When I played in the 'old days' it was possbile to time your own spells so you wouldn't be interrupted, hence my surprise.

 

[Jermosh]

They have always hit with magic arrows as long as I remember. I just have Protection on.

 

[QMSoar]

As Thiefy posted above the easiest solution for this one is have a summoned creature guard you. I have a T-hunter/Fisher so I don't have many skill points to spare. The summoned creatures require only magery to create and work like a charm.

Daemon is the best but they have a karma penalty attached. Fire elements are my personal choice. They are still strong enough to get the job done and don't hurt my karma level.