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Archers feel like they never quite get the respect the other units types do. With the Scorpion update, archers now exclusively target defense which was combined with front-line units almost universally getting a boost to their defense. On top of this, they still have to content with the weakness they've always had: accuracy, cover, reinforced enemies, and wind barriers. I'm not necessarily opposed to archers having these noticeable weaknesses as long as they still have a role they perform well, but I think they need some love from the devs before they can be worth fielding, let alone specializing in. In my opinion, these are the two biggest areas that need to be addressed:
1. A lack of a unique/useful role
Let's compare archers to their most similar counterparts, the Skirmisher and Battlemage:
Archer: Ranged physical attacker
Battlemage: Ranged magical attacker, usually with an AoE nuke on a cooldown
Skirmisher: Hybrid ranged/melee physical attacker with high mobility thanks to Slippery and Swift
Battlemages target what is generally a lower defense and outside of T1 versions, have a damage ability they can use that either does heavy single-target damage (often with status effects), or targets an area of effect. The abilities also completely ignore accuracy, giving them options if they get blinded or are dealing with enemies in cover. Skirmishers have melee attacks to fall back on and are able to quickly extricate themselves from dangerous situations thanks to slippery, while still having a ranged attack on demand.
You could make an argument that archers are better against low defense targets like battlemages and supports, but they tend to have trouble with that role as well. If ranged attackers tend to be around 3 hexes away from the frontlines, then they typically won't even be able to reach the enemy backline, and if they can, often face fairly significant accuracy penalties. Archers don't even have a range advantage vs skirmishers/battlemages until champion rank since all 3 unit types have a base range of 4. Hell, battlemages effectively tend to have 6 or 7 range with their nukes, giving them far more reach.
One possible solution is to just give archers 1 more range. I don't think this would end up especially problematic and would give them a stronger identity than they currently posses. If you go this route, their champion medal would probably need to be reworked to something like +15% accuracy as not to make their range excessive in the late game.
2. There are no T4 archers!
In order to make investing into ranged enhancement feel worthwhile, there needs to be adequate ranged units throughout the course of the game. Currently, there aren't any ranged or skirmisher units at T4, adding a pretty significant limit to the lategame reach of enhancements like Amplified Arrows or Poison Arrows. Having at least a single T4 option would help with this, and would also close the pretty significant gap that exists between unit types in the T4 space right now (seriously, there are nine different T4 shock units and eight T4 battlemages!)
Shield units and Polearms also slightly suffer from this lack of variety, only having a single T4 option each, but at least most melee enhancements also apply to shock units and fighters! And 1 is still greater than 0.
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