that's your opinion, in ma case i found being an archer far more challenging, having no wfp in 1hander and managing to kill a full geared polearm/2hander/shielder is better then just having to run around as infantry and doing the same thing over agein.
Pretty much this. Archery is the most challenging class cRPG has to offer. Being a Kuyak-Greatsword hero isn't hard, same as abusing speedbonus as agi-whored swashbuckler (without the buckler).just point and right- or leftclick as you please, then hit "S". Chambering isn't that hard either as you make it out to be. I taught someone to chamber in less than an hour, and his playtime in cRPG was about 3 hours beforehand.
Teeth, you're favoring one class, which you are just specialising in, and completely leave out the notion that archers always need to carry sidearms for melee. Cav needs sidearms, cause Lances aren't all that great in closerange melee on the ground when their horse is dead. Please, next time you're going to start melee-propaganda again, at least try to think beforehand of your arguments. Hybrids will always be weaker in comparison to specialised and making the most out of one single-skill builders. Thus, it is actually a lot more challenging and skill-reliant to play 2 classes at once and still excelling at them, managing to actually top a scoreboard or 2.
Additionally, I guess the actual numbers of ranged players are still about even to earlier times. I certainly haven't felt a difference to before. cRPG-playerbase will ALWAYS whine about ranged, archers especially, cause they never bother to actually think about suitably countering them, either with a shield or by doding them.
PS: Ad1no, do you know Paul? I guess not. One of the best 1h-ers ingame (without shield, mind you), and him probably also having played pretty much every class as an Item-balancer. You just don't know, cause he uses unknown alts.
PPS: Renegat: Really? Archery not nerfed? That has to be... the first patch since the last 20 that it has not been nerfed in any way. Get real.
I like the new score system, as it actually shows who is a teamplayer, and who is just a killstealing bundle of sticks intent on just getting the last hit for his e-peen.