@evil-minion said in Archer is Vanguard's weakness. Vanguard is most popular to play. Put 2 and 2 together:
LTS got much less interesting with the addition of those endgame icons. It also buffed Archers as it makes it much harder to flank them or even use cover. Not the way to go in my opinion: floating icons etc. should be kept at a bare minimum - I think even objective markers offer way too much hand-holding that reduces the tactical options most of the time (and often ends up favoring Archers too).
As for Archers themslves and the topic here: Yes Archers are the main counter to Knights and limiting them causes the Vanguard population to go up or even rampage because of missing counters. However, this only applies to mass-Vanguard where 4 Archers are simply not enough. Too bad limiting Archers makes the probability of encountering mass-Vanguard much higher. Now Torn Banner could keep going the wrong way and introduce a Vanguard limit reducing the player options even more and making the game even less diverse.
Or they could remove the Archer limit making the game more diverse (and better in my opinion) and providing the options to deal with Vanguard spam. But then we run into the old problem: the main counter to Archers… is Archers. Which is probably the main reason they introduced the limit in the first place. If one team starts to use Archers to great effect the other teams Archer count will increase in an effort to snipe them. This increase in Archers causes the first team to use even more Archers to counter them more effectively. Which in turn might cause the second team to use even more Archers.
So the way to deal with this is:
(1) Make Archer balance high priority.
(2) Balance Archers:
less easy to play (higher risk, less forgiving)
not the main counter to itself (it should be more effective to pick up a shield and charge than sniping them)
(3) Get rid of the Archer limit (and overused floating icons - the King needs no tracking device either)
(4) Add a Hardcore mode (100% FF, team flinch, 1st person only, ranged spread, no floating icons and less health regeneration)
I have to strongly disagree that the icons buffed archers, because it made it impossible for them to hide and snipe you.
