I believe it's time we discussed a very important topic. That is, the state of Equestrian Archer. Now before you go hit that - button hear me out.
Rather than providing a sob story lets get to the point. Sure the latest patch lifted the damage cap from equestrian ranged (which was a horrible idea anyway) I still feel there is further work to be done in order to put the classes in balance. As of right now there is a penalty percentage on both qeuestrian speed, and damage. I -can- sort of understand the speed penalty however I do think it's still a bit too high. Most equestrian ranged choose the arabian steed for its maneuvering abilities (It is quite the beast). While typical light cavalry use the destrier or courser which are quite a bit faster than arabian. Which means overall the players who should be dealing with the equestrian ranged should have no trouble catching the agile yet slow arabian.
The battles between equestrian ranged and cavalry just aren't the same anymore. I feel more inclined just to shoot the enemies steed in the head a few times rather than deal with the rider on my rear end constantly. Should a light steed really be slower than a heavily armored one just because the rider is wielding a bow or some other form of ranged weapon? You may argue a few points against this for sure, but I believe it should be at least up for debate. My request - lower or simply remove the speed penalty.
As for the damage penalty I think it's pretty obvious that at least for archery the penalty is too high. It can take a truly ridiculous amount of arrows to take down any target even with a few headshots. It doesn't help that you can only care one type of arrow either. That's a topic that's been brought up a few times before anyway. I can see how the equestrian throwers might need a bit more of a penalty than someone using a bow. Still the damage difference between using ranged on ground vs mounted is quite too drastic.
In conclusion I think it's time we had a real debate. Something other than burning us poor EA/EX/ET at the stake. Please make sure to state your opinions and arguments in a mostly gentlemanly manner.
