Why would you let someone get a hally hit or spear hit off on you, if you're a decent mage? That's always how I fought against my friend. He'd precast a spell, I'd poison him. If he was still coming at me, I'd lob an explosion potion, and cast explosion/ebolt. That'd take him down almost all the way with 100 alchemy and I'm sure it wasn't much different with less. Then you fireball while he tries to cure, or poison again. Always save your mana till he has his weapon equipped. How did you guys play during UO:R?
I've seen every kind of template beat every other kind of template, and make it look easy.

Blah, precast was one of the most enjoyable aspects of UO:R because it made it really diverse.