In my own, personal opinion. Shields are a great tool to defend against Foot archers/Xbow. But shield by itself do not counter it.
The best true counter to it is just groups of melee (preferably some with shields) and positioning.
Archers are ususally slow because of the Weight of their arrows EVEN if they use light armor.
Xbows can be shut down easely since they'll have to be reloading the thing after each shot.
So the problem for most people is more or less Surviving the enemy ranged untill they actually REACH them. The tool to use that is either a shield, a group of players, Footwork or cav. Using the Environment and using the "natural" covers is also a nice way to achieve this but it's not always possible on every map.
One way or another, Hoping your ranged kills the enemy ranged is also a valid solution. And ranged is also sadly one of the only things that counters HA's/HX unless they are stupid enough to try to bump someone with a pole or sword.
The only other thing left that can counter them is their own stupidity or their lack of Focus, spacing or beeing oblivious about enemies coming from the side.
Anyway. That's just my 2 cents. *Meow* :3
