Longer hold time (despite anti-realism) would be a good trade-off.
i've heard that too, but i've compared my dmg tests on alts with arbalests on alt chars vs my longbow on my friend with same armor
1. Holding your bow drawn for a few seconds IRL allows you more accuracy, not less.
2. Dont ever compare crossbows and bows for balance, or any other, kind of test: Crossbows must only invest WPF. They dont even need much for repeatably accurate results. Archers must sacrifice points for PD, and almost 100% of wpf to even hope to hit anything with a longbow. Its accuracy is shit, its refire speed is hilariously bad, for some reason it weighs MORE than a horn bow, even tho hornbow has a massive leather horse sheath....
TO BALANCE ARCHERY:
Give Longbow decent accuracy. OR, much better solution:
Tag all bows that come with horse sheaths as Unusable on Foot: They arent designed for it, they are RIDIculously accurate and powerful considering how useless against armour all tiny compound recurve bows were, and are, when made from all natural components. The sheath would seriously hinder your running if worn as it is ingame, tbh it would have been attached TO THE HORSE not to the archer. Fix the weight issues also: a longbow does not weigh more than a compound recurve + sheath. It just doesnt.
I snapped that worthless longbow over my knee and swan-dove off a tower, rerolled my STF archer and guess what?
Rus bow using with 18 str and the rest AGI and pumped WPF is shooting like a beast. Fast, accurate, hard enough hitting for default arrows. I'm actually hitting people where before I couldn't get enemies past fifty meters!
I ask again, what is the point of the longbow?!
Currently no point, and players who use it do so because they care more about their style than killing. It is pathetic.
If you enjoyed 18/21 or 18/24 Rus bow, try horn bow: Its faster, lighter, and even more effective. Ugly as fuck, unrealistic to the extreme, but the most devestating of all archer weapons.