Nerf Archery

[Kafein]

I would be pleased to see archer formations shooting volleys from far away and stuff, yet, every single mechanic regarding ranged gameplay we have right now is literally shouting at you "KITE THE SHIT OUTTA THEM". Although this is old news, this wont ever change unless the average melee lemming wont stop shouting "ololo nurf them archurs" and as long as we have godmode-shield-forcefields.

And for you black milk, either you play with new style missile animations or you are just plain lucky.

You have to be kidding me. Only bucklers cover more than what is shown.

Anyway, archers should be fighting from further away than what they are doing now. Part of the reason archers shoot at very close range is the possibility of surviving for very long while being very close to the enemy, through kiting. The effectiveness of kiting can easily be fixed by offering alternatives like a decent melee hybridization (less dependant on teammates, can be further away from them), and decreasing mobility.

[Mlekce]

I don't ever get killed by ranged from long range,always get killed by archer standing next to me.
They use their bows and crossbows as shotguns,that can kill me with 60 body armor in one arrow or bolt.
If i survive by some cind of miracle,they just run 3-4 meters and shoot again. Robinhood killed me few times doing sidestep,and getting on side of my shield and shooting me in the head.
Their movemet should be nerfed,so they can't run from mele fight.

[XyNox]

You have to be kidding me. Only bucklers cover more than what is shown.

Anyway, archers should be fighting from further away than what they are doing now. Part of the reason archers shoot at very close range is the possibility of surviving for very long while being very close to the enemy, through kiting. The effectiveness of kiting can easily be fixed by offering alternatives like a decent melee hybridization (less dependant on teammates, can be further away from them), and decreasing mobility.

WHAT ??? you cant be serious. With a generic shielder build you are completely covered from every singe arrow that comes from the direction you are looking at. No matter if shot at your toes or your head.


And yes. Shooting from a close distance is dozents of times more effective than long range shooting due to medicore missile speed, damage drop over distance, accuracy issues, missile drop and easy dodging possibility because of inertialess movements.
E: I might add im talking about average archers here, not high lvl fully loomed archers.

[Mlekce]

There are archers who are not having loomed bow? 
Imagine now archer lvl 35 with loomed bow.We actualy have few of that archers in eu1,they are true nightmare.

[Kafein]

WHAT ??? you cant be serious. With a generic shielder build you are completely covered from every singe arrow that comes from the direction you are looking at. No matter if shot at your toes or your head.

Well yeah that's true but without that shields would be completely useless. Atm they barely make any difference since you are almost never being shot at by only one person, in front of you and while you are not otherwise engaged.

Besides, what matters is the side coverage, and all shields but round ones completely suck at it.

[Gurnisson]

I get shot in the front quite often with 6 skill and a knightly kite. Shields are garbage for what they're supposed to do, catching projectiles.

[San]

WHAT ??? you cant be serious. With a generic shielder build you are completely covered from every singe arrow that comes from the direction you are looking at. No matter if shot at your toes or your head.

False. With an elite cavalry shield, you can be hit in the feet, so the shielder needs to see whether you are aiming for the head/feet. With the heater/kite shields, the shielder needs to be fully facing you. If he faces even ~30 degrees away, you have a chance to hit him, especially around the shoulder area. The heavy shields have less of a problem for those areas at the cost of being more annoying to use quickly in melee and overall slowness.

I think where the shielder is actually pointing is a little off compared to how it is viewed on your screen sometimes, too.

[XyNox]

EU3, now. If you wanna know what your shields are capable of that is.

[Adamar]

This still going on? Devs, force Kafein and the like to play as archers for a couple of months.

[Lorenzo_of_Iberia]

Archers are fine atm imo apart from maybe one thing :

- How can they draw a strong bow while running? No large bow can be drawn without bracing yourself on the ground or in a saddle. Make it so bows up to the Nomad bow can be drawn while moving, the other bows cannot be drawn while moving. This stops these ridiculous archers who kite or even worse sidestep holding a drawn arrow in the bowstring and head shot their opponent from the side.

Otherwise I suggest if you dont like archers, take a shield. I play a horse thrower with no shield and I know that if I get too close or just charge in I am gonna die. I die a lot from arrows because it is a choice I made by not taking a shield.

The damage on archers is pretty good for a bow, especially against armour, but then again it has to be that strong for balance. The accuracy on the bows is also impressive, but once again with 2h's having the strength to wield their swords in ridiculous manners and cavalry able to stab without lances breaking, its just for the balance of the game. They would be underpowered without it.

[Mr_Oujamaflip]

Make Archers move slower while drawing and both Archers and xbows should have to go into zoom mode when weapon is drawn to nerf point blank shooting, that shit is dumb.

[Grumpy_Nic]

Archery is fine except for the hardcore kiting. As suggested countless times, just lower the speed when a bow is drawn.

[Kafein]

This still going on? Devs, force Kafein and the like to play as archers for a couple of months.

Been there done that.

I don't like it, and even though I'm quite bad, I survive much longer than with any other class.


I suggest you try shielder yourself, trying to be an effective counter to archers (pro tip : you won't).

Or, much easier, stop using ad hominem attacks when you are out of actual arguments.


It is quite appaling that all melee classes without distinction complain about archers. Even shielders. I currently am a 1h/thrower with a shield, which is virtually the class that is the closest to an effective archery counter. I should be happy whenever I see archers, because they should be preys for me. They are not at all, and the class I dislike the most the way it works currently is still archers. I should be complaining about axes breaking my shield, heavy weapons causing blockstun, cavalry bumplancing, but I'm not. All these threats are beatable and avoidable. Archers are ubiquitous and insufferable. My shield barely makes a difference, since two archers can negate it anyway. My throwing weapons are slow and lack accuracy, they are effective against infantry mobs and cavalry, but certainly not against archers (btw this is not actually a problem, I wouldn't want more shit flying in the air, the shield + 1h should be enough). I lack speed to catch archers, and it will always be that way unless I drop my armor and my shield, in which case I will die before seeing the opportunity of chasing one.


I mean, I'm fine with archers countering 2h and poles. But nothing counters archers. At least not in the same way archers counter everything else. For an archer, countering a class means using your left mouse button. For a shielder, countering an archer means having to fight through all the enemy infantry then walking at turtle speed trying to catch multiple targets that move faster than you and shoot at you from a zone wider than what your shield can cover, then not dying because of a glitch when you are at facehug range (yes, I'm talking about keeping your bow drawn into the character model of a shielder and sidestepping to go around the shield), then actually catching the bitch when it starts running again.

[Rumblood]

I've seen very effective shielders. No offense, but check the approach if you are having issues with archers, because when one focuses on me, I HAVE to deal with them and when they get close, I have very little chance. Even if they don't get me, well I'm not going to get 30 points that round. More like 5 or 6. If you think that isn't helping your team, you are crazy 

[Kafein]

I've seen very effective shielders. No offense, but check the approach if you are having issues with archers, because when one focuses on me, I HAVE to deal with them and when they get close, I have very little chance. Even if they don't get me, well I'm not going to get 30 points that round. More like 5 or 6. If you think that isn't helping your team, you are crazy 

That may be, thing is I don't even bother (and many shielders will tell you the same) anymore. At least until I'm forced to chase archers, I will not do it cause it's a death trap. In battle mode of course, the context on siege can be different.