In terms of armor, i never claimed that a courser is more durable than a destriter, i havnt been comparing a courser to a destriter in particular. A courser even though it is weaker than a desetriter is sitll stronger than an arabian, despite the fact that an arabian costs more. I was talking about survability, which i factor in the speed of the horse to its ability to survie.
A horse as fast as a coursr can outrun and get away from any cav and can quickly move out of range of archers shooting at them. Not to mention its a lot harder to hit a faster target with a bow and arrow. The fact that a horse as physically weak as the courser commonly survives to the end of the round if the team wins is an indicator how much speed helps.
Balancing the game around the best players is a good idea. A new player would pick whatever random horse he thought was cool, and experienced player knows what horse is the best horse and they will pick that horse (why would you deliberately ride a horse you thought was shit). They know what is best and therefore is overpowered.
You also mentioned your games getting 50+ kills and what not, and ive seen other courser players score in the 40s. Ive never seen anyone whose ridden any other horse get into the 40s, or really even close. The most non courser horse kills ive seen is around 33 i believe. That is a huge difference. The coursers speed also enables it to get around the battle field faster to make more attacks on enemies which is the biggest strength of cavalry.
You can say its the skill of the players, but that only confirms the fact that the best and most knowledgle riders use them, which confirms that they are the best horse. I doubt anyone seriously believes that number of kills could be attainted with any other horse. And as ive told others if you didnt think the courser was the best lancer horse you wouldn't ride one.
Lol you make me laugh... why can't you get around your head -----------------> Unarmoured good horses:
-Courser is the fast one, its designed to hit and run, run far far away after hittings. That is its purpose, if you don't like it its your problems
-Arabian is agile horse, designed for close combat and dodging with ease.
-Destrier is the hard, balanced horse.
Being able to run away with a courser is the whole point of it. It doesnt turn well and if you hit right (its speed increasing damage) it dies really quickly. If you dont want courses running away from you, well get one yourself. Crying about courser's speed is like saying that its unfair that shields stop arrows, its idiotic at best.
You wont find a HA much more experienced than me in the game, and I tell you, coursers are really easy to shoot. Arabian is by hard the hardest to shoot on the right hards. Also, regarding your argument about the game being balanced around the best players. Pre-level recalculation/nerf I could take on the large part of the enemy team, my team would usually win and my scores were off the charts, back then I could headshoot someone accross the map on a courser at full speed (courser speed makes the biggest reticle for a HA) - If the game would have been balanced around my build and results this would be a very different game, boring to most people.
Also, I still play HA now thats its damage sucks, i have not changed to something OPed, i play what i like and i still do well with what I like...There is a good chance that whoever is doing well in NA servers with coursers just liked that horse since ever and stuck with it, mastering it....A lot of people do really well on a courser or other horses or even just weapons. A player being good with one item doesnt mean the item is OP, maybe its that they are just very good, or you just suck at adapting to different challenges (for example, if you dont have a courser you dont follow a course around without thinking, you corner the courser rider so that he cant scape. If he is going for you, you out manuver him - It can be done, easly done for experience riders).
Also, LOL 40+ kills with a courser on the horse? Haha please tell those players to come to EU1 at primetime and do it. Maybe take a gaming laptop to EU if they are on holiday so that their ping is better...it just doesnt happen.
I play with a courser, I love the horse, its the only reason ive retired. when playing as 1H cav (did it on an alt till i sacrificed it) the biggest amount of kills i got with an arabian warhorse, its incredibly easy to kill coursers on most maps with an arabian WH. I have done it with a Champ courser, but for score sake an arabian is best.
Furthermore, people i consider good riders (ive got a pretty good idea since ive played cav all my crpg life - which is just after the very very very first wipe) do well with all horses. Armoured and un armoured. Horses are balanced. If anything too expensive to upkeep.