ahahah that's hilarious, implying archers used their run speed for melee efficiency rather than kiting
Same old tired ass witty catechism that has been repeated enough by the anti-archer lobby to become an established part of their dogma.
The fact is that 95% of archers stood their ground even when the 2 hander or polearm user was doing their flying lolstab from 15 feet away. Why? Because they were arrogant enough and had enough accuracy to believe they were skilled enough to shoot you in the face while you were jumping through the air. They stood their ground against cavalry because they believed that they had enough skill to shoot you in your face and have enough time to sidestep your charging mount. If shit turned bad, they could take out their short weapon and be able to control the engagement in melee as all agility players should against a strength player.
Strength = slow but powerful and the build is forgiving of mistakes. Agility = quick and able to control the engagement but can make no mistakes.
So why did that change? Accuracy nerfs, slot restrictions that reduce pure archers to 0 slot 70 reach weapons, auto-kick when enemy is within 5 feet of an archer, the missile speed nerf that many archers believe is what exacerbates the ghost missile phenomenon and now the weight nerf. Lobby after lobby to appease the butthurt who primarily made their case with hyperbole and conjecture.
The developers simply will not accept the truth behind the motivation of the majority of this minority lobby, that they will never be happy with the state of ranged. They want it removed from this mod completely, and will continue to use every fair or foul means at their disposal to have it taken out as an option to play, or reduced to such a state that no player will bother trying to use the class.