I put this in a separate thread because the explanation goes beyond the scope of Tear's of Destiny's General Guide for New Players (http://forum.melee.org/beginner's-help-and-guides/tears-of-destiny's-general-guide-for-new-players/), but it is still important enough to deserve attention:
A great portion of new players choose to be archer/shielder hybrid in one of their first generations. This class sucks, they get frustrated and often quit. New Players, Don't Repeat The Mistakes Of Your Peers! I'll explain from a game mechanics and balance perspective why archers w/ shield are weak.
Consider the following archer builds:
Level 37 (110 099 555 xp)
Strength: 24
Agility: 27
Skills to attributes: 18
Athletics: 3
Power Draw: 8
Weapon Master: 9
Archery: 210
There are several variations of this build with different STR/AGI ratios, but the important part is that Athl is cut to get higher Attributes, PD & WM.
Level 37 (110 099 555 xp)
Strength: 18
Agility: 30
Skills to attributes: 12
Athletics: 10
Power Draw: 6
Weapon Master: 10
Archery: 210
Increased survivability; this build can run away from most players. Again, there are variations with different STR/AGI distributions, but the important part is that this build tries to maximize Athl, PD and WM.
Level 37 (110 099 555 xp)
Strength: 24
Agility: 27
Skills to attributes: 18
Power Strike: 3
Power Draw: 8
Weapon Master: 9
Two Handed: 115
Archery: 170
This build prioritizes PS and some melee wpf over Athl. It requires long weapons, because short weapons need Athl to be used efficiently: With short weapons and little Athletics, enemies will outrange you permanently and you can't do anything about it. I don't personally understand why people would play with a build like this because using ANY weapon without Athl sucks in my opinion, but I have seen it out there.
Level 37 (110 099 555 xp)
Strength: 18
Agility: 27
Skills to attributes: 6
Ironflesh: 2
Power Strike: 6
Athletics: 9
Power Draw: 6
Weapon Master: 9
One Handed: 115
Archery: 170
This build is a common choice because it gives reasonable mobility while still allowing you to use the highest requirement bows and some melee. However, I've seen varations of it with higher STR/PD/PS or higher AGI/Athl/WM.
Now let's talk about this from a balance perspective:
- The first build does reasonably well against characters of other classes because it's a dedicated choice, that means zero hybridization.
- The second and third build traded 3 attribute points for 6 additional skill points. They are hybrids, and it is pretty safe to say that the 3 attributes lost directly translate into an effective level of 2 lower than the dedicated build when you look at pure archery performance: 2 levels give you +2 attributes and +2 skills, or after conversion, +3 attributes. That's 2 levels worth of offensive power you sacrifice for survivability.
- The fourth build is even more of a hybrid, since it sacrifices 6 attributes, that is 4 levels, of offensive power for additional survivability. So if go for the fourth build and want to have the same damage output and accuracy as the first, you need to be 4 levels higher than them! Reaching level 38 takes about 6.5 times as much as level 37. While passionate players may find it realistic to play 6.5 times more than casuals, anything beyond level 38 is near impossible to reach. So of the 4 extra levels you need, you realistically only get 1.
Being 4 levels weaker than the dedicated meta is something skilled players can compensate for. More headshots, less room for errors, but doable. Talking skilled players, I refer to people who played several 1000 hours of cRPG alone (other Warband mods don't count because archery is unique in cRPG). If you just installed the game and float somewhere in between your first 5 generations, you are not experienced enough to make high hybridization recommendable.
Now let's add shields to the picture:
Level 37 (110 099 555 xp)
Strength: 18
Agility: 24
Ironflesh: 2
Power Strike: 6
Shield: 8
Athletics: 8
Power Draw: 6
Weapon Master: 8
One Handed: 76
Archery: 170
We would arrive at something like above. The player in this example can still use the highest damage bows and also has a reasonable amount of archery wpf to be somewhat accurate, but the melee wpf is alarmingly low. Alternatively, the player could cut 3 STR instead of 3 AGI, which would lock the Yumi, Rus Bow and Long Bow out of the spectrum of possible choices, making his character considerably weaker (since the 6 requirement bows are already weak with 6 PD: Remember build 1 having 8 PD and being "average" compared to other classes!).
Talking levels, we would now sacrifice 9 attributes, which is 6 levels of offensive power. 6 levels is something I find near impossible to compensate for when we are talking competitive archer gameplay. Maybe there is a one in a ten-thousand talent out there that manages. But if this talent used a dedicated archer build, they would truly shine rather than being "just average"... Most professional, 3000+ hours play time players won't be able to play as good as the average cRPG player if the prior used a shielder/archer hybrid and the latter used a dedicated archer build.
Now keep in mind that if you read this, you are most likely a beginner, nowhere near 3000+ hours and so on. That's of course nothing to be ashamed of, but let's be realistic:
You're gonna spend your first generations dying to all sorts of things, so why undermine your chance to get even a few kills with a build that neither works in practice nor even in theory?