What is "a mile away"? I'm talking about where archers go every map. There's always hills or roofs that archers camp and seem to have no problem with the distance. The maps usually aren't huge. It's usually a central area of battle that is created by a wide circle of buildings with an open plaza in the middle, or a lane, etc. There's very few where there's no hill or something that isn't comfortably in range of most of the targets. Even maps like Nord Town and that similar-looking native map with the boats and the docks have archers shooting at a longer distance than they usually need to in most maps as they sit up in the balconies around the roofs, yet they are picking each other off just fine (when they aren't shooting infantry).
I think in part it depends on the map. For example in Nord Town the team that starts on the boat runs into a funnel with a fence on the left and the houses on the right, and archers perched in the the roof/house have a straight line easy shot into the crowd. I liked the ATS version of that map much more than the original native map.
Otherwise as an archer here are the targets that will always be relatively easy to hit regardless of range:
-Reloading xbowmen
-Bad archers (archers that stand in one place lining up their shot and firing
-Large clusters of infantry
Infantry/cavalry traveling in a predictable straight line are next in line on the 'ease to hit from longer distances' list. Fast horses are a bit harder because you have to lead them a loooot, but straight lines in general are an archer's close friend.
But from that point you run into the the shots that are almost impossible to correctly predict from long distances, and frankly ones that are a bitch to get right even in closer distances. They are:
-Good archers: I HATE having archer duels against good players, the trick is getting your shot 'ready' at the same time they are just stopping to line up their shot so hopefully you'll be able to get your shot off at their stationary target and then be able to dodge out of the way before their shot connects with you. Otherwise it becomes a guessing game of which way they are going to strafe.
-Squirmy infantry: Some squirms are very effective, some are not. There are tricks for archers to help increase their success rate against these guys, but especially at larger distances (not the point blank/closing type shots) good luck hitting someone focused on dodging like this.
-Squirmy cav. In particular ones that will give you their front/back as a target instead of the broad side of the mount. Just a few slight twists and turns can make cavalry very difficult to shoot, especially at longer distances because you need to give your shot so much lead time. Granted horses are easier to hit than infantry because they are larger targets, but still not a cakewalk.
I should also mention that fighting these smarter players are a greater risk to an archer, because every split second of extra time I spend focusing on my aim and holding my draw is one split second longer that I become that stationary bad archer I talked about earlier that is just begging to be gunned down by another archer, an xbowmen, or a backstabbing cav.
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The trend here is just like any other trend in this game: the newbie, predictable, less aware players are archer food (almost) regardless of range. If you are an aware experienced player you probably fall into one of the later categories however, and you might be surprised to realize how many archers focusing you were required to take you down. The next time you get killed try to keep a mental count of how many arrows whizzed by. Kay I know that I hit you the most when you are riding in to lance someone because your approach (naturally) becomes a bit more normalized and predictable, but once you are 'out' my odds of plugging you or your horse go way down.
