The damage of an average archer really isn't that bad. The problem comes when you've got an archer with a +3 bow and +3 arrows combined with a high strength build. If you keep nerfing archery as a whole, you'll just see more and more that are like that.
As such, I'd say it would be better to:
1. Give an incentive for archers to get at least a little melee ability, so they have less excuse to run. (I have no idea how to do this though)
2. Somehow level out the damage from high strength archer builds, so they don't outdamage more balanced builds by as much. Perhaps make powerdraw give diminishing returns past, say, 6 PD while eating up more WPF.
3. Nerf the damage from looming bows/arrows. Maybe give them a little more ammo/missile speed bonus instead.
4. Somehow slow the faster archers down. Perhaps make it such that anyone with a bow equipped has their athletics capped at a certain value (perhaps 4-5 ath), but if they drop the bow, their ath returns to its full value.
5. Make all ranged get staggered from nearby enemies at a much further range than they currently do. (perhaps 1-2 meters)
Again, I don't think the average archer needs to be nerfed at all (in fact I think they're perfectly balanced right now), rather the extremes need to be dealt with. (Very high strength builds that can 2 shot heavy armor, and very fast running-archer builds that deal little damage but can't be killed)
Also shotgunning needs to be removed. It's incredibly easy (especially with xbows and throwing), deals massive damage, and is very much against the whole concept of a RANGED class. The fact that pretty much any scrub can grab an arbalest and run around with it aimed, then easily shoot someone for 90% of their life from a meter away is just absurd (and yes, I've done this many times, it's insanely easy.)