So my options to not being killed without chance to prevent it are...
... hiding and taking myself out of the game this way, waiting for the MotF to appear of the HA's arrows to disappear, unless he starts picking them up all over the map
... hoping for a mistake (lolwut? So if he does everything right I am screwed?)
... dodging, which works in about 0-50% of all cases/shots?
... wasting skill points, item slots and weight on items that I am required to use, never mind which class I am, to deal with a certain class (deal = not being a sure frag for him) (on another note: how many items do HA's require to deal with other classes?)
Again: I am not crying for a nerf of HA's. Definitely not. I am just stating things from my infantry point of view. Chances of me catching archers are low. Chances of me catching a HA are 0 as sure as 2+2=4 is. It is absolute metaphysic certainity. Chances of a horse archer killing me: very good, in any situation. Amount of suck in this relation: enormous.
Removing battle mode and replacing it by something reasonable would change a lot.
And how would you balance a class that...
... is immune to a big part, I would say even the majority of all enemies on the server
... can attack anyone they see, which means they have no classes that they can't attack in in return to above
?
- Arrows disappear quickly, just like weapons. By the end of a round an HA will be low and there will be very few arrows to find.
- If you were in a duel your only hope of winning is if the other person makes a mistake.
- More like 50-90%, if you dodge properly. HA vs decent dodging aware inf is actually pretty bloody hard. Most HA give up and move on. Problem is most inf aren't very good at it.
- If you don't want to make a build like that...then that's your problem.
- HA's require all their items, that's all slots + horse... 2h, or other inf can just carry one weapon around the battlefield to deal with most classes. If you want to be truly viable, take a little extra.
Plenty of inf have very little trouble with HA's. You just have to know what to do, or have a decent build. Just because yours doesn't work, is not the HA's fault.
You balance them by giving them not all that great accuracy and a damage nerf. Which is what they are now.
Shielders are also pretty much immune unless they are locked in melee or get bumped by other cav. Bump shooting is hard to pull off and easy for aware inf to counter.