I completely understand game theory and ncsoft broke that when they let people multibox. 1 every archer has a ISS buff slave because they are useless without buffs its a class that needs to stack buffs to be efficent but since it fairly simple now to box an iss almost everyone I know has a decent level buff slave mine is only 50% behind me in level gear isn't as great but its not exalted gear either.
The buffs they added for the most part made healers not needed in run of the mill xp. I can xp without a healer because vamp rage (which as much as I like should not apply to range toons) without vamp rage archers would either need a tank to hold agro off them or a healer constantly healing them. When i got to higher xp areas I keep a healer in party just in case of lag etc where I could die as archers are not known for high hp and pdef.
Since awakening happened in GoD the ideal party thing disappeared. In areas where mobs are resistant to arrows that can be overcome now for top gear. However this is a little point I would like to make Yuls were not the preferred class until about 2 - 3 years ago it was nukers. Archers has so many restrictions on them and where they could hunt some had daggers to still xp with a party because of so many arrow resistant mobs.
Basic game theory breaks a RPG down into 4 - 5 classes. 1 Tank (standard in all RPGs no explanation) 2 Healer (pretty standard) 3 melee/range rouge (Our dagger/archer without many trap or chest skills anymore we actually use to have them) 4 range nuker (standard to ours) 5 melee high hp DD ie titans, duelist, dreadnaughts.
Many variations in this game but that is the usual standard in original RPG. However archers are not even have skills like rouges should have IE traps, open chests, hide in shadows (30 seconds come on with 5 minute reload which mind is only a semi recent addition). Before afk macros were allowed you had to kite mobs you were killing which is a way an archer should hunt. It this is a little better for the theory part?