I like the fulings, at least as a faction, but I feel like as an enemy they are a bit out of place balance wise. If you talk to anyone who plays valheim, chances are you will get a various opinions on how underpowered or overpowered the fulings are and this isn't surprising at all.

EDIT: I've gotten a lot of comments about them not being endgame forever so I wanna put a disclaimer down and say I know that the fulings won't always be endgame, but that doesn't change the fact that they are very out of place overall.

The Problem With Fulings

From a hard-core player perspective, the fulings can be seen as pretty weak for an "end game" enemy, and from a more casual perspective, the fuling can be an annoying pest that for some reason can one shot you even in wolf armor.
I myself agree with both takes but believe that neither a buff nor a nerf is necessarily as what needs to be done is a tweak on the enemy overall.

First off the fulings are essentially your gold standard of a goblin in virtually every game ever. They are pack creatures with primitive gear and are of small stature with basic levels of intelligence. With that said, why is it that the fulings are essentially walls of meat that hit harder than towering trolls? It genuinely makes no sense that such a creature is so powerful. I understand that the enemy is suppose to be tough as this is a tier based game and the plains is an end game area, but the fulings, unlike every other plains creature, are just seriously out of place power wise in comparison to the physical characteristics.

Even so, the enemy is very easy to deal with when obtaining better gear which is why a certain group of people want them to be buffed, but I feel like this is more of a bandaid fix more than anything. The enemy would just be as repetitive and this would only essentially make them more tedious. This is a common problem with games in our day and age where developers and players alike see difficulty and and higher hp/dmg as one in the same. I may be biased as i am not a fan of tier based systems in games to a degree, but I feel like I should express that this is not the way to go, especially with fulings. But with that said how do we actaully fix them then?

How To Fix The Fulings

The fulings, as stated earlier, are pack creatures and this is the foundation that they should be built on difficulty wise. The different types of fulings should be expanded and there ai tweaked to accommodate for different roles in combat. We see certain enemies like greylings as more cowardly creatures in comparison to there counterparts so why not have differences here?

Shield fulings: should be more defensive and if they block your attacks, it could possibly stop you in your tracts.

Torch bearers: could play the role of more hit and run based enemies that pop in and pop out of combat when you least expect it or could even bring in backup.

Spear fulings: could be much more evasive about close quarters combat. These enemies would run away instead of attacking and essentially become a nuisance to catch and finish off.

These are just a few examples on tweaks that could be made. If this was the case or if different changes like this were made, then damage increases or health buffs would be unnecessary. Hell, you could quite possibly have to nerf these stats due to the increase in difficulty, making the enemy more realistic to there size.

This is just my opinion and I'd love to hear what you guys think!