Yep. Every server I play on is a range fest, literally 80-90% of my team almost every time I play has some sort of range weapon and everyone has a melee weapon just in case people get close to their camp spot. It's pretty silly that the hybrid is pretty much the only viable build, everything else feels like trying to *force* something to work simply because you want to, not because it's effective.
Playstyles have seemingly been forced to become range first, melee second and only if you absolutely HAVE to. Pretty boring, I'd rather play BC2 if I wanted to shoot people all day. It's really an exponential problem: inf you can counter with inf or range, the only way to counter range effectively is by range. Don't say "omg go shield", 2 archers can easily pick 1 shield apart, yet 2 shielders cant take 1 archer down as he'll simply run and let the rest of his team shoot you (and cav strafe you). Pretty ridiculously one sided. This problem only gets worse faster as more and more range is introduced and the problem is more and more exacerbated and pronounced, leaving only one way to respond to it: get range yourself. All emphasis now seems to be ranged, with melee only being an afterthought. It's pretty frustrating the way the trends are going when most of the skill and uniqueness of the game lies in the melee system, not in the less-than-average ranged system.
I'm pure 2h, it's pretty effective. Shielder too. For my playstyle I'd feel like trying to force it if I picked a cheap ranged sidearm. I can't block a road or rush and shoot at the same time. The few times where I'd really like to shoot, well I just deal with it (*) that I've left that open with my class, like a cavalry has to deal with it that he can't use his horse in a castle map.
Countering archers as shielder is also not a problem with the right character, f.e. Kinngrimm always got me on my archer.
Try to look at that bolded part again. I don't really know how to put it so I'll just try to put that against it:
2 shielders can easily kill 1 archer, yet 2 archers can't take 1 shielder down as he'll simply block and let the rest of his team shoot you (and cav strafe you)
If you were really serious about that change your tactics, as a group of shielders kill the rest of the team before you run after a running archer.
Poll