STF to 30 to make an archer is... cheating.
Try leveling up an archer, and there, you'll have your drama. Anything under lv25 is : as accurate as a xbow, as much damage as a PS 2 melee.
So protip for all thoses new archers, leveling up, and wanting to be usefull when low level :
Buy a crossbow. I used one lv11, with 0 wpf (so yeah it breaks often, but who cares about that, it can break 700 times before i'm broke) so you can also use whatever armor you want, since you can't reduce wpf below 0 (duh) and ENJOY ! Did a 4:1 on one round, as the team attacking a village. Because team balance found me OP, i was balance to the previously loosing team. As a lv11. To BALANCE things out. xD
One suggestion for xbows that wasn't a nerf in any way, was the "requisite wpf per xbow". But even that wasn't added in the patch. And we're all having battles at the moment, with equipment that needs repairs BUT.... think ahead... think about... strategus. Where NO equipment breaks. Where xbows have NO requisite. Let's all have fun shooting Arbalest on a wall with 0 wpf, shall we ?
Oh, and did you know that archery was nerfed balanced because of how it was good in strategus ? Like... how it was good months before.