WPF problem is mostly for x-bow, archers and throwers have penalty due to PD and PT.
Lowering missile speed for x-bows won't change anything because they will still hit like a truck...
If you want to lower the amount of ranged on a server you will need to initiate some form of global nerf. If not, they will just switch to a ranged class that was not nerfed. Personally, I think there are more elegant solutions availabe. But we are just tossing around ideas. Although I agree that there needs to be a rebalance with the arbalest's damage.
Now if this is what Steevee meant exactly he is right. Lowering missile speed will have no effect on shield piercing. Shield piercing depends on damage and the armour of your shield as far as I know, and I think it is a fairly shitty and unneeded mechanic.
I read somewhere that shield pierce was based heavily upon missile speed. Seems that I was wrong:
#missiles with damage > shield_penetration_offset + shield_penetration_factor * shield
#will penetrate.
shield_penetration_offset = 30.0
shield_penetration_factor = 3.0
#setting speed_power to 2.0 makes damage scale with the square of missile's speed.
# you can set it to 1.0 to make it scale linearly as it was before.
missile_damage_speed_power = 1.9
melee_damage_speed_power = 2.0
Regardless, I find it pathetic that high tier shields that are unloomed offer little protection from arbalests.