Archery was a bit too strong before the combat update, but it’s far too weak now to be a viable option except under very specific circumstances.
I’m using a Flawless Hyrkanian Bow which does a grand total of 10 damage base. I’m also using Set arrows, which do a jaw-dropping 6 base. In theory, this puts base weapon damage for these two mid-game items to 16 damage per shot. The regular steel spear (which is around the same level) does 29 per hit, plus knockback and bleed. In additon, melee weapons can hit multiple enemies at once.
I’ve used a yellow lotus and put everything that I have into accuracy, and I still have trouble getting enough damage per shot to actually kill even basic scorpions, which die in a second or less with a spear.
The only way archery is viable at the moment is when used as part of a group for a single crippling buff on a fleeing enemy player (which is impossible to make reliably with the new combat interface for archery, even if you were a “good shot” before the update), or for cheesing boss creatures by standing on top of a rock.
To fix archery, there needs to be a 50% damage increase to all arrows and bows, accuracy needs to have more of an effect on it, and there needs to be some sort of stagger on being hit with an arrow. I’ve done quite a bit of target shooting with bows in real life, and trust me, arrows hit with a lot of kinetic force, even from traditional longbows, let alone recurve bows.