What the fuck did I just read?
You want every non-shield melee to change their class to shielder? That is not evolution, and sure as fuck not a solution. Solution could be to make archery more difficult. Not by nerfing the stats, but by increasing the projectile drop and allowing the low tier 1h/2h to be 0 slot. This way, archers are no longer forced to run and can put up a decent fight. Apart from that, there's no reason to fuck the class diversity up. I can't even believe that someone would be so short-sighted. You're suggesting that cRPG should turn into Native. Everyone is a shielder because there's no other way to counter ranged and that's how it's always been.
The reason I started playing Warband was because of the directional combat system, not because I wanted to be a medieval Counter Strike kiddie like ROBINHOOD. First few months I was ignorant and thought of ranged as a nuisance but no more than that. I even preferred it in the beginning. Then I discovered cRPG. Everyone was melee. Why? Because cRPG at that time was full of people who were fed up with Native and its completely flawed balancing. It was a medieval Counter Strike, basically. cRPG allowed for a venting of pent up frustration in the form of melee-centric action. That shit was fucking fun. Even later when most people got throwing or crossbow for sidearm, it was the best gameplay of my life. Then a major influx of archery began and again the frustration was coming back. Then devs nerfed it a few times and it was fine.
It's still fine, and people who complain have only themselves to blame for thinking that there should be no drawback while not wearing a shield.
Evolution my ass. Everything is fine. You just need to stop balance by nerf and instead change to balance by buff.
