Using 80k worth of gear as a heavy cavalryman with a 27/15 build I am very hesistant to take on a lone archer in an open field. I think that is very wrong on so many levels. I don't have a shield though. The times I risk it and stab them in the face moving at full speed, they often don't even die. While they usually take 1/3rd of my hp on the way there and another 1/3rd on the run. If they have the courtesy of not simply oneshotting me with a low distance insta hit headshot.
Wait what ? You're stabbing them with a Cracked Katana, on a donkey ?
Or you're only taking into accounts the archers with 50 head armor ?
As a standard straw hat archer, i nearly always die in one hit in the face, it's part of the deal.
When a cavalry charges you dead on, they are taking a risk. But so is the archer, if he decides to try to shoot you, instead of just downblocking/sideblocking while sidestepping.
The archer may take 1/3rd of your health in one hit, but on the other hand, if he misses, you're nearly assured of a one hit kill. Thing is, it depends more of the archer skills, than your own.
I'm a veteran archer (not sayin i'm good, just that i'm old).
What used to kill me the easiest, were lancers previous the angle nerf.
Nowadays, it really depends on the map, and the players.
1h/shield heavy cav are the deadliest. Since your awareness can't help you survive against them, unlike ennemy xbows.
Next are the sniper xbow, since they also always oneshot me.
Couching cav on courser is also pretty sneaky, since i often miss the timing, and hit the horse in the dead, instead of the rider. And then die. What's funny, and occured several times, is my arrow killing the horse, but me still geting killed by the cav. Damn timing.
Rondel+shield are dangerous, when they gank you smartly, when you're already duelling another infantry.
HA and HX are okay on 1v1, but since they're cav, it's easy for them to gank ennemies one by one. And if there's at least 2 HA/HX, or even one lancer and one HA, you're just doomed.
I tend to avoid archer duels, since it's so easy to dodge arrows at long distance (though on some maps you can't see shit) and i'm an hybrid, so less wpf, so less accuracy, etc...
In my opinion, the main archery problem came with the loomed "rework". The fact that archery is the only class were looming (for 6 lp) your bow and arrows doesn't give you any more damage, means any player can be as deadly as one who wasted 3lp on his arrows, and used 3lp to get a slightly better draw speed and missile speed. Also, it's the one where you feel the most difference between lv30 and lv33+.
So nowadays, we have a lot of regular archers alt, with not even loomed bow or arrows, who know how to block, since their main is a melee, and thus aren't even fast to kill in melee. Worst being xbows, since they can easily be better hybrids than archers.
Also, the bodkin arrows doing pierce damage, instead of the longbow only, means any archers, and even worse : HA, can use bodkin arrows and deal decent damage to anyone. The fact that it breaks nearly every 3 rounds is a good money sink, but gold isn't a good balancing factor.
Finally, a lot of the QQ comes from the fact that there's too many range. And i don't see how you can solve this problem, since the class in itself is actually not so bad balanced. Every people saying archery is OP since Steeve killed them easily, forget the fact that they're facing a high level player, and they would also have died if facing TomMyyY in melee, for example.
Both are templars, but ofc, TomMyyY is a way better player, the comparaison with those two is only because being in the same clan.
Edit : very recently, throwers with axes /daggers / shurikens, with a really good accuracy and excellent drawing speed, are actually a big threat in 1v1. Damn you Zibi.