I think it's because we haven't seen that kind of action in months that we think archers without kiting don't work. They do, and they increase teamwork, having to stick with melee bodyguards.
Then I predict a pretty hard time for random archers without clan mates on public servers, because bodyguards need to know they are bodyguards, and to be willing to do the job.
I'm not sure, but I think there are more tradeoffs now than before. Before, almost all level 30 archers were this :
Level 30 (4 420 577 xp)
Strength: 18
Agility: 21
Hit points: 59
Now you have to make a tradeoff between PD and WM, because one doesn't become useless above 6 anymore.
Sorry, I expressed myself unclearly. I didn't mean you have less tradeoffs than before, I meant they let the opportunity pass to implement some strongly needed tradeoffs. If you have one value lowering the other it sounds like a tradeoff where you have to choose between two things or try to stay neutral. But there is not much choice between ATH and WPF, and that's why it is a simple reduction of possibilities and thus a very sad nerf.
Making them slower was the intention, not the solution, you dislike the intention.
The (most basic) intention was to remove kiting. The solution was to do it by making the archers slower and/or infantry faster. I dislike this solution. I would have preferred a solution which would have made kiting ineffective or unneccessary, instead of changing basic class mechanics. (Next to the fact that the way the slower-solution was implement is sub-par aswell.)
Current gameplay was 'shoot as many arrows as you can until an infantry player decides to approach you, run away, shoot as many arrows as you can and laugh at him while he cries in despair without being able to do anything'. How is that better? My solution and about 5 other soultions for kiting archers were a whole lot better than what they did now, but I am already glad something's been done.
In no way I think that the old gameplay was a single bit acceptable, but this solution here is just meh. It's half-hearted, uninspired and doesn't contribute any bit to making the game more awesome. Yes, it makes things more balanced, but in a way like a steamroll would make everthing plain and even.
