Archery

[Rumblood]

I agree that you can't judge the effectiveness of an archer by the scoreboards. On rounds where I'll go 1-1, if it counted them, I would also have 4-5 assists and 1-4 horses killed. That's a lot of contribution that simply will not show up on the scoreboards 

[Loki]

I think a good judge for whether archery is viable or not is if players with shields stop raising them because they don't care if they get hit by an arrow or not, because they do little or no damage.  Also arrows are so telegraphed with the new animation that it's very easy to dodge them.

[bruce]

I think a good judge for whether archery is viable or not is if players with shields stop raising them because they don't care if they get hit by an arrow or not

And they're damn well raising them, unless they see a hunting bow. I don't get where you pulled the "they do little to no damage" from.

[Blondin]

I always raise my shield or move in zig-zag, and sometimes when there are lot of archers, i rather grab a bigger shield.
Arrows do damages between 1/4 and 1/2 of my life, headshots always kill me.
Raising my shield is more like a survival instinct.

Btw, with a 1handed weapon you need 3 to 5 hits to kill a guy, with the risk that he strikes back.

[Vexus]

Thing is round shields block everything thrown at them and whenever I see someone with a round shield I either have to run for help or try to hit him from the sides since the forcefield makes him block head and feet at the same time which is retarded.

[weight]

Btw, with a 1handed weapon you need 3 to 5 hits to kill a guy, with the risk that he strikes back.

I've been killed in 2hits by a sidesword when I was wearing plate armor.

[Mattressi]

I've been killed in 2hits by a sidesword when I was wearing plate armor.

Yep, I can confirm that I've killed a guy in plate (had the Great Helmet on) with 2 shots to the head using my side sword. Left to right slashes almost always hit the head and are hard to see. I had 3 PS and 11 str at the time.

[Memento_Mori]

My archer hybrid says that archery is pretty balanced, I make it to the top of the score boards some times which really impresses me since all I read on the forums is that "archery is impossible, a waste of time, does no damage hurr hurr hurr"
5 pd 135 wpp using Khergit or Strongbow depending on the map, decent accuracy & okay damage + once they get close I just pull out my beast of a 2h sword and cleave the wounded enemy in half.
my shieldless infantry screams like a little girl when he sees a crap load of archers, so I guess he says it's balanced as well.

[Vygar]

I think Archery is lacking.  Projectile speeds need to be increased.

[Chasab]

last night on the NA 100 server we were playing the map where one team starts on a boat, and the other starts inside a high walled fortress with a little river inside.

one team had close to 15 archers. they formed a line and just mowed us down. it was ridiculous.

[3ABP]

ATM all main bow line (Khergit, Strong, War)bows are fine.
Not OP at all. But not under powered too.

Khergits bow is just fine for headshots in close combats and to "remove blocks" to help your melee teammates.
Strong bow is very good at medium range.
War bow - is just universal weapon for all distance.

ATM we observing very good picture - what and archer can kill someone and infantry can survive some shots (not to die from 1-2 as before).

I (as archer) like current situation (because understand - what any time all can be changed to for the worse )

P.s. today archer are alive and have ability to shoot olny when enemy team allowing them to do this.
I am about Xbows and Shielders. If enemy team don't like to see archers alive - they dead. Or just have not targets to shoot at because of shield wall attacking their positions.

[Rumblood]

Archery is fine except for longbow, but I would be content to never use it, rather than fart around with the entire system again 

[Stormcrow]

one team had close to 15 archers. they formed a line and just mowed us down. it was ridiculous.

yes archery is extremly effective when combined with teamwork. Archery is really fine the way it is. The only thing that needs a slight buff is the amount of tiume you can hold ashot for before it becomes inaccurate. Even an extra .5sec would be a reasonable boost.

[Loki]

I think this thread has served it's purpose, a general consensus seems to be that it is balanced or a little under balanced.  I'd like to see more screenshots of non-lethal headshots.

[Boss_Awesome]

last night on the NA 100 server we were playing the map where one team starts on a boat, and the other starts inside a high walled fortress with a little river inside.

one team had close to 15 archers. they formed a line and just mowed us down. it was ridiculous.

I think my archer was involved in that, along with the OP    We had a squad of six archers on Teamspeak and then there were some other random archers that would follow our squad around.  Archers are awesome when working in a group.  On their own i think they are a bit under balanced.  Arrows are starting to get pretty slow, where you can see them coming and dodge like Neo in the matrix.  Archers can learn to lead people more to compensate for their speed and still hit them, it just feels kinda silly. I don't mind the changes to archery but not when throwers were unaffected.  They can throw 3 axes in the time it takes me to shoot 1 arrow, they can have a shield out, they can move and throw and they do more damage.