1) I'd say fighter is better to begin with, because they're stronger and have good HP and dmg and everything. Also it's easy to start moneymaking I guess, since when you get to 30, slack on some T3 scrolls and you can quite easily farm ZK, to get blues and stuff.
2) It's rather hard to pvp with an archer.. you'll need +9s , good gear and possibly charms ><.
Lvling is easier with an archer. Once you get to 51 you can kite the hell out of a huge crowd of monsters (with a speed scroll
).
If you want to tank bosses you'll need scrolls and good gear. And it's definitely harder to tank with an archer. But as an archer you can party up with a fighter and just be a DD.
As for build.. I haven't played with archer that much, but I suppose adding STR to make up the lack of dmg, but with good end and dex in gears?
I hope it was useful for you. o: