Wow.... what a long-winded shitstorm of pent-up rage, skewed perspectives and (surprisingly) some decent suggestions.
I can only speak from my personal experience. My main has been an archer for about a year, give or take a few months, and 90% of the time my set-up has been MW Long Bow and one stack of bodkins + one stack of regular arrows and a 0 slot sword. I'm actually incredibly pleased with this patch overall. Over the past few days, I feel that my score has more accurately reflected my performance than it did pre-patch. When I'm accurately predicting my target's movement, I do well. When I'm completely shitting the bed, I've had a negative K:D.
Archery provides a different experience from melee classes. In my experience, it's a bit slower paced and focuses on the player's ability to accurately measure speed, judge distance, and predict the target's movement/notice movement patterns. Some players are naturally better at these skills, while others (such as myself) have to practice archery for a while before they can be consistently effective. Infamous archers are usually long-time players (the experience making it easier to predict other players' movements) who have either practiced archery enough or are naturally good at judging speed and distance. Rohypnol, for example, is ridiculously effective as any ranged class he plays because he has played for a long time and (it seems) is naturally good at judging speed and distance. I specifically recall him respeccing to archer after some patch within the last year (I can't remember when, sue me) and topping the scoreboard all day long. He then proceeded to proclaim archery as an easy class, and to be fair, it seemed pretty easy for him.
Item balancing shouldn't be based on these types of players. I read this entire thread and dismissed basically every "archery is still completely viable" post that used Algarn's position on the scoreboard as proof. Algarn seems be one of the top archers in EU, so it's fairly dumb to base the balancing of archery on his scores. People rarely complain when melee classes top the board with ridiculous scores, but when an archer has a couple great rounds, half of the server has fucking seizures and asthma attacks from the sperglord rage. This, it seems, is based off of frustration because they never had a chance to fight back.
I'm a bit too lazy to quote every post I saw, but I hope anyone reading this can read previous posts and make the connections.
Let's address the arrow count change. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I completely agree with Tydeus (pinch me, is it real?) I think the nerf was too severe, but that decreasing the arrow count is good for the server. Sure, archers may not be able to sit in the back of the field and take endless shots anymore, but it forces us to be more selective about which shots we take rather than develop carpal tunnel from firing non-stop for the entire round. Over the past few days, I have not noticed the arrow count nerf decrease my effectiveness. It has only stopped me from taking across-the-map shots and has encouraged me to wait for surer shots before firing. This type of more thoughtful, targeted play is better for the server and doesn't necessarily decrease an archer's potential effectiveness (except perhaps in large servers - learn to scavenge for arrows!!!), although it may require archers to change the way they play. In fact, being closer to the action forces archers to rely on their teammates for protection. Isn't this the type of teamwork that the OP was encouraging? Inter-class reliance?
Next, the accuracy increase. In order to make up for the ammo nerf, accuracy was increased on bows. Also, players are more accurate because of the level buff from this patch. I have 170 wpf in archery and am very accurate with my long bow, even in medium-light armor. This buff has not necessarily increased my performance by an absurd amount, but has caused my effectiveness to be more directly related to how well I am judging speed, distance, and movement patterns. Pre-patch, it was a mixture of luck and personal performance. Keeping in mind that any ranged class will always have an element of luck to it, we should look to minimize the role luck plays and maximize the player's skill. Say, for example, my reticule is roughly the size of the target's entire body. My shot has the potential to hit the torso (most likely), hit the head (less likely), or miss completely. The outcome in this situation is based on luck, not the skill of the player. Let's replace the body-sized reticule with a completely tight reticule (maybe twice the size of a target's head at medium distance?) and the potential outcomes are based much more on where the player is aiming and much less on luck. If the player is able to track the movement of the target's head (hard at any decent distance), they deserve that headshot. If he can track the torso, he hits the torso. If he slips, or has a temporary ballsack-cramp, or doesn't track the target properly, he misses. This has been my experience over the past few days - I hit (or don't hit) where I'm aiming. Maybe we need to further re-balance other properties of archery to compensate, but the general idea behind the accuracy buff is a good one.
Third, the damage nerf. Personally, I'm a fan of this nerf. Despite Jeade & Co's supposed tests, I have still been able to kill plenty of people post-patch. Granted, I'm using the heaviest bow, but I've seen other archers with as low as horn bows be effective as well. Nomad and Tatar bows are cheap and light.... they shouldn't have the killing power of a more expensive, heavier bow. The simple sword shouldn't be as effective as an arming sword, so stop whining. Either use a smaller bow, save money, and hold your tongue, or shell out the gold and pay for a heavier bow.
Lastly (I think), is the cost aspect of archery. As long as I've been playing, archery has been somewhat of a money drain. In fact, I'm currently poor as shit (although that could be due to terrible money-management skills). On a x1, I lose money. On a x2, I generally lose a little money. x3 and above, I tend to come out on top. Perhaps other people have had different experiences, but that's how it usually turns out for me. There are tricks to cut down the cost of archery. Using 1 stack of bodkins on top of 1 stack of a cheaper arrow stack has saved me tons of money! Anybody who has played archer for 15 minutes knows how ball-breaking the bodkin repair is. Use a cheaper sidearm - I kill plenty of people in heavy armor with my Nordic Short Sword and 0 wpf (although admittedly, 8 PS). If you don't have a build with some melee capability, stick by a buddy and use him as a bodyguard. If you still can't make money, just play on an alt and transfer excess gold to your archer. Despite all the crying, I haven't found making money in c-RPG to be impossible, even as an archer with a longbow and bodkins.
TL:DR?
Stop being so fucking lazy and at least skim through what I posted. I'm only mildly retarded, so you may find it worth reading.
