Trust me, the more archers there are on the field, the better shielders do compared to non-shield melee.
Sure, as long as all of the archers are in front of your shield. Fuck all you can do against 2 or more smart archers. By making archers better, you didn't buff shielders. You made shielders relatively better against archers (compared to non-shielders), which is not a buff. This added bonus in ability against archers is negated by all classes getting nudge, making them more effective against shilelders.
You can call it a relative buff, but then with all classes getting nudge, and nudge having this supreme ability to stun a shielder (because you know, that massive piece of wood you're holding in front of you is nothing compared to the power of a left hook, or the pommel of a sword), shielders received nothing in terms of buffs. Add to that the fact that some 1h weapons got nerfed, I see shielders as being the worst off after this patch.