What i find funny is that no one cared when there was so few archers, that they could easily get picked off by cav, whose horses NEVER die from one arrow.
(My Palfrey died from one hit to the head when i was charging the archer and his MW rusbow+ MW Tatar arrows. It's so unfair ! Have you seen a +3 destrier ? Have you counted the number of arrows it can sustain ? Try comparing things that CAN be compared, even only goldwise and statwise...)
So, to continue the story. Lots of archers got fed up of being weak. So they did research. Some knew they had good awareness, good accuracy and patience : they went xbow.
Others knew they only shot close range before taking out their efficient melee weapon : they went throwing.
Few sticked to archery, and decided to research the "perfect" build. And after a few months of training, they found the one they found more effective. But yet, being a lone archer was hard. So they started to stick with other archers. Knowing that cav would think twice before facing 2 aware archers, that they could outsmart a stupid shielder thanks to their athletics.
Seeing that effectiveness, a lot of players who lack melee skills rolled an archer. A weak archer. But there's 40% luck in everyshot, so even them can sometimes finish people off.
Then old players found all thoses noob archers shooting their 2h, so they rerolled an archer, and easily owned the other archers, finding pleasure in this new sport.
Etc...
If archery was effective in 1v1, you'd never have archery evolved as to where it is now.
If only infantry and cavalry could also evolve and work together, i wouldn't have to play my own archer to kill most of the noobs one out there.
Lastly, missile speed from bows is so slow that it's easy to dodge. So it's easy for archers to dodge other archer's arrows. So they shoot infantry that walk straight, with no awareness, focused on the peasant in front of them.
It's the melee fault that archery has become what it is, without any help and any buff (except maybe the bodkin pierce damage, wich is great "realistically", but a bit stupid in term of balance...). So... take it like a man.