I've read through the thread and thought it time to throw in my views, whether you like it or not! Personally, I dislike this patch, but that can be explained away through the fact that there are now more archers who are better than me.
As some people have started to say in the later pages, the barrier to entry to be "good" with archery has been reduced by the increase in missile speed whereby, as mentioned by multiple people, makes it easier to hit their targets lessening the amount of "lead" needed and allowing for much straighter shots over a greater distance.
That is the only thing that I see from this change, the barrier to entry is reduced and more people pick up a bow, as is only natural, also, at this point we've got people testing the patch, which always happens and skews the views for people, including myself.
The damage added to bows over heirloomed bows - makes little difference to me but for the more casual players, makes things more worthwhile. They are still not as accurate nor have the same missile speed (2 increase for example from +0 to +2 on the longbow is quite useful!) as the ones who put in the time but they're still viable (as they were before to be honest, but more so now)
As for the increase in the number of arrows per quiver - you've broken my mental count & increased the number of things I have to avoid, I disagree with anyone saying that 1 stack of 17 arrows is not enough!
So to end my opinion really, I don't like what has changed and to make a final judgement I need things to die down but I think I understand the reasoning behind it and fully support that. I feel that the change to basic bows & heirloomed bows with regards to the damage is unnecessary & merely increasing the missile speed of the lower power bows would allow for a lowered barrier to entry and making the whole environment to be less hostile.
Anyway, as I say, opinions but I shall sit out from playing until things calm down back to an equilibrium, I can't handle it at the best of times.