Though when you see a shielder bitching about ranged, when he's standing on high ground, on a stair, only one things comes to mind... l2p...
I was covering the opening on the other side of that building, covering our own archers and 2h camping in there, waiting for the other team to come to us. I went to the stairs so that I could take the screenshot without getting shot.
The point of that picture is to show the angle and the spot where that arrow hit. To me this demonstrates that there is no forcefield anymore and basically my ability to cover my team (even myself) while we, or the enemy, approach is nonexistent.
Like Kafein said - I hunt archers, because in siege it is generally impossible to hold the flag while archers are firing at you from above. Someone has to do it, and unless friendly ranged can control their archers completely, I figured I might as well do it, because very few other bother to.
I prefer to play with a shield because I very often end up in the middle of the action, taking hits from multiple sides (storming walls, charging through bds and EU1 blob on blob action). I'm not that awesome manual blocker, I cannot compare to many of the pros out there, but I can get one or two hits on most people before I go down.
I'd say shielders main threat is cav and crushtrough weapons (which anybody barely uses anymore)
With the recent buffs to 1h wepons and shields and the ranged situation on EU servers I'd say this is currently the class to go to and it shows, there have never been so much shielders, but I guess some ppl are never satisfied and will push and lobby their class forever.
If you've ever played as a 1h shielder you know that mauls are the least of our worries, due to the fact that they are extremely slow. I've only ever met 2 maulers on EU2 that could keep up with me and kill me 1 on 1. Same goes for cav. Unless bumping to death (which takes forever) counts, there is very little a single cav can do against a shielder. Unless that cav is a HA, thats a different story. And I dont know where you're getting your statistics from, but I just played on EU1 and out of 35 people on my team, 6 were shielders (one had a bow on his back and 2 were hoplites). I'd say the amount of shielders is lowest I've ever seen it since I started playing.
Mad cuz bad.
I've played shielder for quite a long time, including the time after all the "archer buffs". And I wasn't some archer-hunting agi-freak, the whole time I played I had 24-18 build (for high lvl).
Shielder is totally fine. Playing shielder is the best way to feel safe, controlling the situation, not being vulnerable to anything. I mean, look at piker - if he meets any other class 1 vs 1, he's doomed. If a crossbowman meets archer while having no cover - he's most likely doomed. If a twohander meets two archers and has no cover - he's most likely doomed as well. Shielder has no such weaknesses, it's a manly class for manly men who are afraid of nothing.
But shielder has to be aware. It's something you are missing, probably.
So my advice: if you like playing shielder, stay with it, it's a good class. If you like to whine, start your everlasting respec journey and may the heaven lead you to being a str-horsearcher-throwing-shielder hybrid build using donkey in the end of it.
I don't know when you played shielder, but it must have been a long time ago. Too long ago. I've played all the maps on EU2, multiple times, so I know most of the spots ranged prefer. So, just my experience probably makes me more aware of archers than most. I'd very much like to know though how you managed to be aware of archers hiding behind every structure on EU2 while still being effective in combat? I think I know the answer to that, but unfortunately for me I don't have a bunch of Druzhina minions covering my back at all times, so I have to do most of the hard work myself.
I want there to be some sort of balance in regard to ranged classes. I don't mind them being able to kill me from a distance, while I'm approaching them. What I do mind is when after all that painfull approach, the archers pulls back his bow, performs a chernobyl-child dance around me, circumventing the shield, and kills me from a distance where ever my 1h would glance. Or my favorite - archer drops bow and arrows, pulls out his scottish sword and now I'm suddenly facing an agile and maneuverable inf that can control the distance of the fight and can deal the same amount of damage as me. Where is this balance you people speak of?
