I love exploring in Minecraft, and the Aquatic update has added a lot of new exiting features for me. The very first thing I did in my new world (with minimal gear) was loot some pirate ships and ancient ruins and it was heaps of fun. I love the turtles and the dolphins and the fish.

That said, I have one little gripe: aquatic mobs with ranged weapons that can spawn in any body of water are heckin' annoying!

I've died to drowned twice recently. In the first instance I managed to retrieve my gear, but just recently I lost about half of it because it despawned before I was to pick it up.

The diamond items hurt, but what annoyed me most of all was the (large-scale) map I had almost finished completing. I was killed (wearing diamond armour) in the middle of a lake in a flower forest, an otherwise idyllic location! The sunny day belied the horror that lurked in that water. I have to say, it was really painful to see my floating map disappear into thin air just before I could pick it up. :(

So: what are your strategies for tackling the aquatic fork-wielding menace?

Normal drowned seem a cinch to me, but when they have a spear they tend to get a number of hits on me before I reach them. Ranged weapons are hard to aim underwater, and I feel like I'm just flailing around when I try to whack them with my sword (especially if it's dark of there is otherwise limited visibility). Also, my shield (which I use to deflect arrows from skeletons) seems to do nothing for me.

I'm not going to give up, but I think I'm gonna take a break before I jump back into that world. I'll check back in this thread first though, I'm hoping your advice can give me the encouragement I need to complete my map this time and get it home safely :).

Edit: how this ended up with 40% downvotes is a mystery to me. I got the advice I was looking for though, so yay!