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In essence, the typical image of a classic elf in fantasy is based on the English archer of the 14th-15th centuries. It's a good thing elves don't exist; they could have wiped out humanity with their bows. The long Welsh bow (which originated in Wales) was the most fearsome weapon; there was no defense against it at the time. Only then comes the mounted steppe archer with a light bow and a halberd. I've seen reenactors fire 3-4 arrows in one minute. Considering that archers were trained from childhood in the Middle Ages, they could fire 10-12 arrows per minute. Such units were killing machines. http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C1%E8%F2%E2%E0_%EF%F0%E8_%CA%F0%E5%F1%E8 The Battle of Crécy confirmed the military superiority of the Welsh longbow over the French combination of the crossbow and heavily armed knight – due to the much higher rate of fire and greater range of the bow in the hands of a skilled yeoman archer compared to the crossbow of that time.
Again, training such an archer required too much effort, while anyone could fire a crossbow with little training.