I will say that coming from Native where ranged is overpowered by any definition of the word I think that ranged is pretty balanced here (and pretty hardcore for low and medium leveled archers), my main gripe is arbalests one-shotting people in expensive armor and generally high-level ranged being able to deal high damage over long distance while staying out of reach simply by continuously running away.
If your main gripe is about arbelests, then complain about them in a Xbow thread, NOT an archery thread! Learn the DIFFERENCE
If you are being shot by
anyone over a long distance and can't avoid it,
try using the WASD keys because they make you move. There is not a single archer build that can hit someone over a long distance that doesn't want to be hit, period. The only people I hit are the ones who get hit, think to themselves "he can never make that shot again, its too far", don't move, and then get hit again, only to come here and whine about how much long distance shots need to be nerfed
Not to mention, that an archer that can hit with PD 8 can't have over 5 athletics, and generally will have less. If you can't be assed to have an average amount of athletics, I can't be assed to feel sorry for you that you can't catch anyone. This idea that an archer can be both hard hitting and an olympic runner is pure heavy infantry propoganda.