they have kesh and ToD.. nuff said.. we have elite archers who almost never miss..
hummm.... chimp, birdman, where the best, and they were Eu. And Kesh... well... let him play a lv29 archer for a change, with no heirlooms. Not saying he's not good, he's definitely skilled, but...you get my point. Playing a 6athl archer in the NA world of Str is sure fun and easier to shoot down than eu's ninjas. Forget all thoses x3rusbow spammers, and i'd definitely say we have very good skilled archers in Eu. I'm saying this as an archer myself, so i guess i can judge them fairly.
Thing is, it's pretty hard to "compare" archers. Heirlooms, choice of bow, choice of how much PD, how to play (hunting cavalry, hunting peasants, hunting tincans, hunting average 2h, hunting shielders), with whom (fallen archer squad, solo ranger, spear+archer anti-cav squad), etc... So pretty hard to compare, imo.
Thing is, only a "few" archers abuse this close range shoot. And i see no reason "why" there shouldn't be a max time for holding your arrow. Realism : your arm will never be able to release any arrow if you hold max length string too long. Balance : when you get shot, you're stunned and loose all your speed, so the archer can "always" be out of range as long as he doesn't miss, wich happens rarely (if the opponent is without shield). And getting 2shotted by an archer, at pointblank, after dodging dozens of arrows is always irritating, i guess.