Well, spears historically were used for everything. They were the standard army battlefield weapon because spears are very good and effective and simple and easy to use. Pointy end goes in the enemy.
The dream is that archers will get an AI tweak that makes them engaging (if that’s a good word).
So my issue with them and rattling guns is the range they attack you from is infinite. And once they have line of sight they will not move. That’s it. They don’t advance on the players or retreat or try to join hordes and specials, they just lob arrows from miles away. It’s quite boring in very large levels (Athel/Grain), but they make sense and are the last experimental enemy type the Goatboys have left after Ungors got massively down-tuned from their skirmisher AI because of how unreasonably unfair they used to be and Wargors had their mini patrol numbers lessened greatly.
If the archers moved around, repositioned, were programmed to close the gap (because getting hit from infinite range away is lame), and got sucked into hordes like other ambient spawns do, I think I would really like them.
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This might actually be a good change.
Obviously yes, but they had a very distinctive ability to completely shut off areas and create absolute no-go zones by creating impassable spear formations. Especially so with pikemen. I’m well aware that the spear was the most common battlefield weapon back in the day, but you also kinda need a straight line to stick someone with it too, you know. 
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Honestly I find Beastmen already enough unique… I mean, I fight both Chaos and Hordes like an horde; while fighting beastboys is like if every unit counted. They are more imprevedible, more agile, etc etc.
Moreover they have unique mechanics like charge, banner, arrows… All this to say that imho Ungors don’t need the old moveset. Also because it doesn’t fit well with Vermintide’s combat system (where you can already take some unfair damage).
P.s Indeed I still feel that they are stronger than Chaos and Skaven.
Sorry for the OT, I finished.
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Yes they are stronger than chaos and skaven, thats the fun of beastmen, dont really have an opinion on spear boys, but archers dont add difficulty mechanics like banners or chargers do in my honest opinion.
Please keep archers. Only fighting dumb melee enemies makes for little innovation in tactics among the players.
In fact I wouldn’t mind some form of enemy that forces us to evolve our tactics somewhat to deal with new situations.
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Huh? I swear I’ve had archers change position if I’ve moved ahead or behind out of their range/line of sight. It seems to be a decent tactic with them when moving quick through a level. It would be nice if they moved more though.
Can’t say I find them fun to fight all in all, but I think tweaks ought to be enough, removing them like OP suggests definitely seems overkill.
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When archers were introduced to the game I had the same feeling that I have had when those missile-shooting robots were introduced to Killing Floor 2. The dynamics and the fluidity of fights changed drastically the moment ranged units were up against you and you as player were not the only one anymore capable of doing ranged attacks. It was actually some kind of power shift. In KF2, it really killed my vibe, I haven’t touched the game ever since.
But for Vermintide, I feel like archers have found their spot. Interestingly, they don’t spawn that often - at least that’s my personal experience. The thing is: Because they are so disruptive in terms of how the game tells you that they are around, everytime you meet archers it entails such a drastic change of fighting experience that your brain will be like: oh yeah, this sh!t again (even after a couple of hundred hours playing the game with archers in it). Why’s that?
That’s why you don’t like archers and, at the same time, have no problems with gatling gunners. The game lets you know by aggressive repeating voice lines that archers are around, it also displays the arrows on your screen/UI when you got hit - and it impacts your movement heavily because of the stagger and action canceling. Remove or reduce the latter and archers will be actually fine.
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I think archers are alright, because they indeed change the gameplay a lot, which is always nice. Since the change that you can block their shots they don’t feel unfair as much, either. Sure, sometimes they can still feel unfair when a bunch spawn in a big open field, but pretty much every enemy in Vermintide can sometimes feel unfair based on the circumstances. For example: Hookrat in a tight space with a horde, or something. Some small tweaks to archers could still be made, sure, like dropping 1 ammo as some others suggested maybe, but I absolutely would not want to see them removed.
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I would prefer that every faction was strong equal.
Yea, I agree… imho they are a bad thought enemy.
What? I’ve made multiple threads and posts about how gutter runners are broken.
It’s the stagger for me that is infuriating. I’d rather they did a little amount of bleeding DoT than stagger you.
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I just wanna add in general, i don’t know anyone who can dodge arrows consistently, i do know people who can dodge hooks and other specials or enemies consistently. The only tactic to fighting archers in a big open field ( thats mostly what i’m talking about) is headshotting them, you can block while ur teammate kills them, or block walk towards them and trigger them, or try and headshot them yourself and hope you don’t get unlucky and tagged 5 times in a row.
Hook rats in a horde can be dealt with if you know they are there, i find a field with 3-4 packs of archers while fighting normal enemies + specials much more annoying than a hook rat in a horde which can be dealt with easily.
Yes sometimes archers are not annoying because they don’t hit you, because their accuracy has been reduced, once you get hit by a couple or you get are fighting a horde with a couple hp and you die randomly becausz you didnt see that archer all the way on the cliff.
And also the stagger as some have pointed out
Yes archers change the way we play, removing them is extreme, but when there are 3 archers or so i don’t mind them as much, getting hit by archers just gives me the feeling of getting hit trough block if that makes any sense. I feel like i can’t avoid them, i’d rather they add 1 big archer who does 20 dmg on hit but you get a notification or a sound when ur targetted which is consistent and can be dodged, would be annoying in tunnels tho but you know.
Like banners make you either move out of the banner circle/move towards it and break it or use a bomb to get rid of it, there are so many ways to fight it and i love that, or chargers who can stun you if you dont’ block or dodge and leaves your vulnerable to overheads etc, if i get charged and overheaded i’m like ‘ok this is my fault i didn’t react in time’. With archers i don’t have that feeling, they stun me and i can’t do anything about it except block 24/7 and walk slowly to them or rely on a hm to go trigger them or pray for rng to not hit me.
Playing as Huntsman I can take them out real fast, but it feels like a waste of arrows. Dropping a single arrow each is not a bad suggestion at all, we get ammo for killing the jihadi-bomb guys after all.
They only move when you’re out of sight and resume firing the moment they have a pixel’s width of sight on you.
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oh, oh, I know.
On top of making each archer drop 1 point of ammunition, each archer should have an ammo counter of their own. They could run out of arrows and be forced to switch to melee when they do!
Give them a huge ammo bag, though. Make it more of a rare, “ok we’ve bothered you enough” occurrence.
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That might also work. 20-30 arrows each or something.
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I’d say 15-20 arrows. Their quivers can’t possibly be large enough to carry 30, being as primitive as they are.
Come on, you can’t say that!