Minecraft Science: Enderman separation testing - water methods

Erm, I forgot to turn down game sound again, sorry about that...and BTW I know I sound kinda pissed off but I assure you I thoroughly enjoy working on new system ideas although this one has been very frustrating. Anyway, on with the description.

After seeing the change to Blazes (not dropping rods unless killed by a player) I took this as a sign of things to come. The "End" will probably be the place to farm Ender Pearls when implemented but for now I took on the challenge of Enderman separation!

I had seen MrPixelTech testing their teleport distances along the horizontal and vertically upwards but I decided to test for myself and found some major issues. Firstly they seem to be far less limited when it comes to descending from heights. They can easily port from Y128 down to Y64 pretty much instantly indicating they scan from the bottom to top whereas it takes them much longer in reverse. Ascending they start to struggle at around 30+ but can definitely do 32 possibly more. It seems to me they are using the same kind of scan used for spawning packs of mobs rather than simply looking for a single dry block with enough airspace.

Secondly when they do come into contact with water (and possibly direct sunlight) they enter a panic state which means they sometimes port as they take a tick of water damage and even though they've ported to a dry spot they port again instantly. In direct sunlight I've observed them port over and over as if looking for shade.

After working for hours on various test setups I felt confident enough to try and retrofit my base with Enderman separation and after observing very low success rates I imported my base to the test world just to make sure my system was feasible before finishing a rail system and filling in caves/tunnels.

Conclusion: Working separation but low yield so far.

Fix: Make sure all blocks in port range have no more than two high clearance... ugh, well, there's a use for those chests full of dirt!