People have tried to curb ranged in many different ways.
Remember when they made the arrows and bows weigh a lot more?
But people just drop the bow and arrow and kite until you get bored of chasing
Then they nerfed the damage or something
But archery is fun for some people and they will still play it
I propose some things (most of which are probably the wrong thing to do but whatever)
Maybe more 0 difficulty shields that dont look super ugly?
Maybe increase shield stats and decrease their weight?
Maybe reduce slots for shields?
Maybe more 1h pierce weapons to combat the plate meta?
As it is I don't see archery as needing to be nerfed. Now I get hit in the body and it takes maybe 2 bars. Head shots are still scary as they should be because that shit is hard to do. At least for me I suck at archery
All I know is I was playing 20 man NA and 7 of my teammates were some type of range. Someone smarter than me make some proper suggestions please. Looking at you item balancers.