no ive always mainly played shielder.
the reason for high amount of range is because low amount of shielders and high amount of no-shielder melees.
the reason for high amount of no-shielder melees is 1) epeen/mentality 2) its simply too good (imo unbalanced/broken) compared to the other crpg-classes. true gamers will always find the weakest and strongest and exploit both.
heres how archers use to be, and yes, there is a lot of room for improving, i think thats obvious. ignore my noobish teamhits, it was my mouse or some other external factor, not at all me. also notice the amount of shielders/range/2h & pole (its not very clear on this clip, but you can hear the shield-blocks in the background in the start of the clip)