Another half-baked suggestion comes in! Let me soft-lock this thread by writing my post (and in turn killing this thread)!
Not at all. I'm an archer main, and archers aren't powerful in most maps. The other kits are more versatile due to how open the maps are, but archers are situational. This is because:
- They're weak on their own, so they need support from other damage sources to get more value.
- Archers get only 8 arrows per kill, provided that they get the kill in the first place. (This should be buffed to 12 arrows per warrior and 16 per beast kill, but keep it at 8 for killing the other kits.)
- Assuming all kits are at full HP, don't score kills (thus no regen on kill), there's no delay or misses between bow shots, and the archer doesn't use melee, archers need:
- 4 shots to kill a samurai
- 5 shots to kill a wizard (regen included)
- 6-7 shots to kill an archer
- 8 shots to kill a warrior
- 12 shots to kill a beast
- If the target scores a kill and gets 2.5 hearts back on kill, the archer will need 1-3 extra shots to get the kill. That's 3 extra shots to kill a warrior/beast who scores that kind of kill, for a total of 11-15 shots.
- It's almost always a net loss to kill a warrior, and it's a guaranteed net loss to kill a beast. Archers would have to expose themselves to melee combat or get the warrior/beast to take damage from elsewhere to have a net gain on arrows.
- The archer cannot shoot at multiple targets at once. If he's gunning down one target, the other one is free to advance.
- Every time an archer misses a shot, that's 0 damage they're dealing in addition to losing an arrow. The more shots they miss, the more they're penalized.
- Even if an archer starts a combo, it is more difficult to maintain that combo due to the knockback enchantment on the sword.
- Archers are terribly weak at melee combat. Ambushing one from behind is a sure way to kill an archer.
Most people have less than 50% bow accuracy (would say about 40% on average). For every 5 shots they're firing, they're going to miss 3 of those.
Take a look at the numerous suggestions about adding regen prior to the update for bias as well. A lot of people were suggesting to add regen (the most popular one being
this one; ironically, it was implemented against what that OP stated) without considering how it would impact the other kits. Any time people use the "appeal to experience" fallacy, it's going to have bias.
I disagree with how CubeCraft balanced kits. Look at the FFA update where wizards and archers were nerfed. Wizard was nerfed to have the splash potion cooldown, so they cannot quickly heal using their healing potions or throw multiple potions against teams. Archer was nerfed because of the regen, thus requiring more shots per target if the target manages to score kills. The diamond kits got buffed because people were complaining about its lack of regen when those kits were already tanky!