i think i must of played every class in this game for a long time and i dont agree with you, ranged is not that hard, throwing doe decent damage and is lethal, i am one of those ones when i see a thrower i run for the hills.
Archery is hit and miss, i have posted 20+ kill scores with it, but have done it much less than melee, its ina good place right now, archers are feared, hence all the QQ threads but are easily countered through cav and shields. And i believe that the rise of cav and shield population was due to the massive hike in archer population due to the recent buff of non loomed bows and arrows. But like most things this just goes round in circles
EG:
more archers ---> more shielders ---> more cav ---> more pikemen ---> more 2h's ---> back to more archers.
IF you think HA's are bad now then you should have seen them before the recent buff to them, HA is class you need skill in to play, probably one of the harder classes, but that skill can really pay the rewards, HA is in no way UP atm. Ive played HA for many gens and to kill a tin can is no problem (just aim for the head)