@Byrdi
I dont fear archers, and I think I am the best class atm vs them: thrower with a shield. They canot shoot me, cant run from me, cannot kill me in melee cause I have a nice 2 slot shield, 0 slot sword, and 12 darts to stop them from running. Archer is NOT effective vs archer, unless it is against UNAWARE archer, in which case, if we talking UNAWARE archer, its murderer is cav, not other archers. Archers are fucking dons at hitting unaware single targets, surpressing doorways and corridors, breaking formations, and picking off horses, but most long time archers will agree: fighting another archer who is aware that you are targetting him: waste of arrows.
Crossbows currently fit a nice historically accurate slot tbh, imo: Ranged for people too lazy to be archers. Archers IRL takes a lifetime of dedication; ingame it takes points and dmg is affected by wpf so it needs investment. Crossbows IRL: pick it up and shoot it: ingame, same thing, pick it up and shoot it. Sure you can increase your accuracy a bit and lower your reload time and upkeep, but if I grab an arbalest off the floor and duel a dedicated arbalester at close range: dmg is the same, accuracy is the same, fuck, suddenly Im a crossbower. Its a bitch class for lazy ppl who dont want to be commited to being a ranged whore. And for ArtemRus. All hail ArtemRUS