The angle isn't the problem and never was the problem. if you take that from Horse archers you will have them just as useless as they are now. The way Horse archers have to play to get ANY kills is high risk; bumping and then shooting which does reward a lot of points but often times not many kills. So the class is "annoying" but hardly considered "effective"
[/spoiler]
The game's not really just about kills, you are not number one on the score board and don't get valor for getting them. It's all about dps this is where valor, ranking high on the charts and multies comes from.
So, Kojiro after the san patch use to ride around randomly spraying people and was easily able to valor farm often topping the charts.
Having played every class in the game, HA is the lowest risk class in the game and the easiest.
angle restriction is unneeded; Horse archers already have a -20% speed -20% damage and limited ammo; they already get ran down by even much slower horses simply because even with high riding the speed penalty for using a bow is harsh enough for them to be caught and killed. Besides one can argue that the most effective spot for cav to attempt to lance was directly in front of them which is still allowed; where as the most effective location for an archer on horse back to shoot is behind them; if this angle restriction was set in stone they would lose their most effective spots being the sides and the back.
No, just like lance cav the most effective place to take the shot is going full speed dead ahead so they can take advantage of the speed bonus. Horse Archers have over 30 shots
You also negate my argument:
The simple fact is that Horse damage is all about the speed bonus and hit area. When chasing a fleeing cav, generally only a lance is viable so even if he can reach him because the attacker has no speed bonus and probably a penalty the damage done to the HA horse is minimal, while the HA has full advantage of the speed bonus and the head of the horse which will be facing him. This is why the arch is so important in cav battles. Having an arch will force the HA to actually engage the Cav, instead of an agonizing cat and mouse chase.
In fact the speed penalty suffered by the HA will convert into added damage from the speed multi against the perusing horse.
Additionally:
The fact of the matter is with 7 riding I can out maneuver any other horse avoiding lances or swords on a donkey. If I was shooting back I would never lose in this competition. I mean just Ctrl-J if you don't know how to ride. Shouldn't this class require some skill to play?
Balancing the game according to what the people want is the most idiotic form of balance there could ever be. Besides that poll means nothing, 30% of that vote alone is targeted at one specific type of range which is throwers and I myself can not argue that throwers are fine currently they do need nerf in more ways than one. Looking even further into the bias of this poll it should be taken into consideration that cRPG has always been ANTI range. Also those 11 votes do matter if you are truly concerned with what the people want; trolls or not they play the game and their vote should be considered all the same. Following your logic of balancing the game according to what the 53% want.
So here you explain how you have no respect for the opinion of the majority of the community regarding balance, duh. Then you point out the 30% thrower vote, which are the only class that can effectively kite and shoot, until HA is buffed. A far as the give them run vote, their opinion is respected as saying that nothing should be nerfed or that they wanted to reply give them run.
The point of grouping the range vote is that by buffing HA you increase the saturation of range damage from increased projectiles that will be taken over all, which obviously at least 53% of the of the people that voted don't want as they are expressing their desire to reduce some form of a particular ranges effectiveness, the end result is the reception of projectile damage.
You could make another poll and name it "buff what" and you will find that the numbers flip flop because people vote with only one person in mind, themselves and "nerf what" to the individual is "what class annoys me the most", not "What class is most deserving of a nerf."
The how do you explain the substantial give them run vote.
Finally, I base these opinions on actual experience of playing HA for months, including during San's HA nerf.
With 7pd, +3 Barbed Arrows, +3 Horn Bow the base damage after the 20% penalty is 31.776 with 36 arrows and he can still bring in a 2 slotted weapon. If that HA is on a Champ Arab he can ride circles around anything and with that damage its not going to be more then 4-5 arrows (more for plated horses) and probably less because the attacking cav has to rush him so there is the speed multi. The community does not want jerks riding around spraying 34 damage on average with no risk and kiting any possible melee threat. Trollish is all that is.Perhaps another alternative would be a 20% decrease to all horse stats for HA.
