I've said it before and I'll say it again. All metal armour is heavy armour and is for bad players or siege. The purpose of armour is to allow you to survive more mistakes (or i guess more ranged shots which you cant do as much about... but maybe you should all be wonderful agi shielders hmm?). If you don't make lots of mistakes or frequently run around in a mass clump of players, then you shouldnt be crutching on armour (and if you frequently fight lots of players you should probably be a wonderful agi shielder).
moral of the story? everyone should roll 12-24 agi shielders with 8 shield skill huscarls... this would mean no more ranged because they would get raped all the time, and people would die in 1-2 mistakes and the game would be awesome. (and agi shielders can dodge horses pretty easy... so not a lot of horses either, and some could be hoplites, others would use axes and some would use swords)