Shooting while jumping, I'll concede that one. Jumping while drawing though (thus cancelling the draw) should be allowed. Right now the place that archers are at their most vulnerable to cav has been made even more vulnerable, which IMO is overkill.
Totally agree with this. You should still be able to jump when you press the jump button, but it should STOP the drawing/aiming of the bow/crossbow. But the people here have been bitching about not being able to draw/aim while jumping, which is retarded.
No offense intended, but your last paragraph makes it clear to me you've never (or rarely) played a foot-archer. Archers are in a constant state of draw & aim arrow -> fire arrow -> check surroundings -> repeat. Even for the most aware archers who check their surroundings frequently there are going to be times they are standing still & vulnerable because they are focusing on aiming a shot. Depending on what stage of the shot the cav catches them, they will have a limited window to try and get out of the way, usually starting from a standing position. Oftentimes there isn't even enough time to switch to a melee weapon and downblock, so you're only hope of avoiding death is to get out of the way. In the past with archers being able to jump while drawing & being lighter & more agile you'd still have a chance at getting out of the way from incoming cav if you were paying attention. With recent archer weight & mobility changes though there's very little you can do if you're caught mid-draw other than die or hope the cav is bad.
First of all. Right click cancels the shot and let's you jump or whatever. That's what I do and it works, even when caught mid-draw.
Secondly: after my main, my HA and archer alts is what I play the most of.
The archer is mainly on siege though, but I still don't have problems with cav when I use her in battle. Same goes for when my HA (which I never use in siege) gets dehorsed. No problem dodging cav then, unless there's a lot of them. Sticking with your team, standing near the spikes, etc., should be more than enough to stop most cav from reaching you.
Look, if you get caught mid-draw by a horseman then you are kind of
supposed to be screwed. If you didn't manage to see them ride all the way too you or they came around a corner or whatnot, then why should they not get to hit you? It's not like you don't have the advantage at range. A horseman (or ninja or shielder or ANYTHING) that takes you by surprise so that you don't even have time to switch to melee is just playing their class right or you not being aware enough. If you get caught in melee range with your bow out it's your own fault, not the games. You should never be able to just go "nope.avi" and continue shooting while people charge you.