I'm trying to swim because it is faster to move to new land but the slaughter fish keep killing me is there a way to fight them or avoid them all together?
You can't swim where slaughterfish are. There is no defence against them. You will need to find another path to where you are trying to go. Stick to shallow water.
Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. ~Friedrich Nietzsche
They're just a lame and lazy mechanic to prevent players from taking shortcuts or swimming too far away from land. The swimming away from land part is fair enough, the world can't be without limits. But the shortcut prevention is very clumsily implemented. All too often you only have to step a few inches away from dry land and just get your toes wet before the slaughter fish bite.
Other MMOs implement similar mechanisms. The famous 'deep blue' water in WoW, for instance.
You can't have a wall of mountains everywhere...
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Hey at least ya get an achievement for getting killed by them
Most folks wouldn't try to swim across the ocean either (sharks) or down certain parts of the amazon or other South American rivers for that matter (piranha) .
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