Raising the skill floor can only be part of the solution. The problem is, that never mind how difficult you make shooting, with missile speed, arrow drop, wind, bird poo or anything, the interaction with your target is very low.
In melee you strike your opponend, and he tries to block you, to chamber, to kick/nudge, to dodge or to attack faster. It's like playing tennis.
But shooting is only one-directional. All the skill part happens only on one client side, which is the ranged player. The only skill or interaction which takes place on the target side is moving unpredictably, using as much cover during an advance as possible, or - which is already the peak of interaction with that ranged opponent, since it's "directed" towards him personally - is to either dodge the shots when you see them coming, or to block them with your shield if you happen to wield one.
This leads to only one conclusion: since a raised skill floor for archers only affects the archer side, not the target side (apart from perhaps lowering the general amount of archers and lowering their hit rate by a percentage of which I doubt the infantry players will notice it), the complaints about archery will not stop.
CrazyCracka basically already told the only right solution: changing the game mode. I'd prefer a real conquest mode with a few changes, but having MOTF spawn always at a set time would already help a lot. It would take away from the passivity of infantry and give them more opportunities and freedom. Because right now infantry gameplay on battle mode is quite depressive, since you can only react to the other classes, while those classes enjoy a much higher flexibility. Which is quite frustrating, and "deadlyness" doesn't change much on this.
