I honestly dont understand much of the complaining about archery.
I might still be gen1, and by all means a noob, but as an archer, it takes me from 6 to 12 shots to take down the average player. This with bodkin + horn. When i cant afford bodkin (which for some reason break down EVERY SINGLE ******* TIME IM KILLED) and i use barbed or even worse, normal arrows, i just go for the headshot.
This, on foot, on horse the damage SEEMS a little better, but the random aim balance that out, at least i can annoy the shit out of everyone. This when my palfrey is not slower than a loomed cataphract
Yesterday, out of frustration, i took my
short spear,
my palfrey and went lancer for a couple of maps. I did twice the kills i do normally, while hitting far less. This with an archer build, 0 ps 0 wp.
Guess who i looked for easy kills ? Yay, archers, basically all that i killed was using a bow
My point is : killing as an archer, is really tough : shielders you cant kill if they are not dumb, 2handers will probably catch you before you take them down, unless you luck out with an hs, cavarly with cataphract or heavy horse wont go down. You are basically farming kills on peasant / ranged / shooting in the back. The only situation we are any good at, its with position and numbers.
ofc, looms and higher lvl (im 30) change the balance a little, but even the VERY good archers i saw on the servers (robin_hood for one) i dont see laying distruction and death around em, like say, a good glaive user or a good lancer.