Add me on steam, sand_man_pb should do the trick. I'll teach you some stuff, like Mango suggested earlier. He's quite a good player if he's trying. I've got quite a bit of trouble dueling him, although I do use crutchtastic armour and weapons that are better suited to harvesting noobs than dueling an equally skilled opponent.
Besides that, when you die in NA1, don't alt-tab and look at bullshit. Watch players that you find are good, or kill you a lot. Try to analyze what they do. In fact, try pretending that you ARE that person. That's how I got better in a hurry when I first started. I found another polearm player that was constantly at the top of the boards, and I simulated their playstyle down to the slightest bit. After I got that down, I developed my own playstyle.
I would highly recommend against going archer if you want to "get good" at the game. Archery is a skill, sure enough, but melee is a larger portion of the game. Not to mention you'll be in melee at certain points as an archer or other ranged as well.