Wrong. The limit on melee combat efficiency is stamina and durability. The limit on magic is mainly mana and reagents and stamina is purely a mobility resource for them. The limit on bows is stamina, arrows and durability. And the collective long limit for all of these are hard hp, hard stam and hard mana.
The way you are talking, its as if you expect everyone to walk into melee range and mindlessly swing at each other. No parrying allowed, no tactics allowed, no teamwork allowed. If an archer can sit comfortably still and plink away without anyone punishing him for wasting all his stamina on firing his bow, do you really think the problem there is the archer, or the fact that he is being given the opportunity to literally do his role unchallenged?
An archer that has been firing for a while, especially while moving is an easy target for anyone that manages to get close with an even remotely 50-60% full stamina bar and a melee weapon. An archer that is standing still is an easy target for other archers.
You also talk as if you have never played the game and as if you have never used a bow? You do know they take stamina right? And the ones that actually hit for any kind of damage take a lot of stamina. And even then, the damage bows deal is not very good against armor.
Has heavy armor. Your damage is pretty damn trash against people in full steel.
It also has good footwork which I'd argue is currently TOO strong and makes it nearly impossible to hit people who do it well if they aren't prettymuch right in your face.
It also has shields and positioning.
Last time I went to GK there was one person "taking cheap shots" AKA actually using one of the parts of the game fully intended to be used. Me.
I was more talking about the checks within the design of the game. Number of arrows, reagents, and durability are less about the design because they are things players can affect.
I do want foot combat to be diverse.
Your example of an archer being allowed to go unchallenged ignores the fact that he can be firing from 20 meters away and would be able to fire several shots and still have plenty of time to switch to a melee weapon and be able to parry all while starting at full stamina because bows use so little stam that while you are standing still your stam bar completely refills before the animation finishes to where you can fire again.
My bow hits for 20's on steel and takes very very little stamina.
When the game is live, very few people will be wearing metal armor. Then arrows will be hitting for 40+, that is only five shots from a cheaply made weapon, 1 gold in MO1's very inflated economy, or 5 mountain spiders and 7 spongewood in non gold terms.
My point, at it's simplest, is that I think archery is a little out of balance and needs to be tweaked and that with the ai being how it is it is unlikely that SV will tweak it and that it will throw pvp out of balance once the game goes live.
