I think this is simply wrong. If the archers know what they do they will always spread out and keep the targets between them, and with their higher movement speed they will win the positioning game, not the infantry. And I also dare to say that the higher the amount of archers, the more they can even get outnumbered by enemy melee players and still win the fight. I saw three good archers killing five enemy infantry, and there was nothing the infantry could have done against that.
You just made some statements without explaining them properly, and often I don't even know what you want to say with it (if you hover out of their range you can't distract them. And I didn't say you rush alone against three archers. The numbers are equal. Although the effect will be the same, because all archers will be able to attack a single enemy, which is the same result as if the enemy attacked on his own. That's that exponential effectivity increase thing again).
And I don't have a clue how a slow shielder is supposed to stop an archer from firing. Casting a blinding spell?
look, i shouldn't have to teach you how to play the damned game lol.
What im saying is actually how to play, im not b/sing or anything, it's what you do.
MORE DETAIL:
ok, scenario, 3 archers in a "group" (say they're spaced approx 20 feet apart, not too tight).
You are a shielder reasonably by yourself, and these archers are shooting at your friends (it's a normal fight, say ~~ 30vs30), they're killing your friends, because they are allowed to shoot.
So i have my archer protection, (my shield, my dodging, and my placement), and i have my cav protection (my 1wpf spear / greatsword, and my awareness).
So, as long as i keep my distance from the archers and i'm not overwhelmed by something, i am pretty much hard to take down right now.
These archers, are shooting at my friends, as i said. Assume all 3 archers know i'm there, so im not ganking them. They realise there's no point shooting at me, as you've been saying, and they carry on shooting at my team, whilst keeping an eye on me so i cannot gank them.
What do i do ?
I move towards one of the archers, placing myself NEAR to being crossfired, but not actually crossfired. This makes the archer I am moving towards have to displace, or he will be in melee with me, and because of my superior melee build, he should lose. So archer 1 is running away, but his buddy 2 and 3 now, they either have the choice of shooting me to stop their buddy dieing, or shooting into the main fight's melee. If they shoot into the melee, i can just pick them off 1 by 1, but let's assume they try to stop me killing 1.
So, 2 and 3 are now shooting at me whilst 1 is running. I'm hovering around the area, dodging as many arrows as i can, and basically trying to keep
as close to them as possible, without putting myself in actual danger. Basically i'm just trying to grasp their attention, and every time i get either an opportunity to kill one of them, or they stop focussing me and start focussing my teammates, I move closer to threaten them more.
I hope this has better helped you understand, a general way to defeat groups of archers.