Well, first of all, they do diminish at a fairly quick rate if they are not preserved. Regardless of addiction, I am only discussing the ins and outs of the ability to preserve. I understand if the idea is for balance purposes, however, I cannot think of a viable argument that it is unbalanced for druids/rangers to have preserve. I was hoping for some ideas or reasons to that end.
As for the Archery thing, trust me Telufial, before rangers had paths, they rocked. It is all about choices you make with your race/class/cabal combo that will either aid or hamper your pk ability. If you were expecting to rock peoples socks off, and things did not turn out for the best, I would suggest modifying your tactics. The game has always been a struggle of balance. People complain if someone is using something that has been implemented for years, and finally someone has honed their skills at using said thing to a point they are beating nearly everybody, and people call it broken. Maybe it isn't, maybe it is just that you have to learn to counter what they are doing. In the instance of missile shield/archery, I think it is fine the way it is. Yeah, I fight a mage, I expect them to have missile shield up, if they don't, they are gonna suffer, plain and simple. So I will develop my tactics around knowing that. The best way to solve a problem, is to focus on the solution, not dwell on the problem, that will get you no where.