Dori

He's a Tactics dwarf with Sentinel. Right there he's not bad. 

 

But exhausting a hero for that ability is a hell of an opportunity cost--and that's before you consider that his ability is largely treading the same ground as his Sentinel keyword. And using him means that nobody can play ally Dori. 

 

Pretty corner-case outside of some very specific Quests and deck-makeups. And even then probably only in 3 or 4-player. You can't even use him to help Siege quest!

I swap him in in place of Baragond in my Tree ent Tactics/Lore deck if someone else wants to run Beregond.  But yea, that only happens in 3-4 players.  His sentinel and ability are just options, which are great.  If your friend doesn't have anyone to block with, he's got you covered. And if they do, he can make them stronger.  He is like adding a Gondorian Shield to someone first turn without having to draw it.   If you get a few extra shields on him, he can even help chump blockers survive an attack, which can be better in the long run.   But Beregond is still better.  

I swap him in in place of Baragond in my Tree ent Tactics/Lore deck if someone else wants to run Beregond.  But yea, that only happens in 3-4 players.  His sentinel and ability are just options, which are great.  If your friend doesn't have anyone to block with, he's got you covered. And if they do, he can make them stronger.  He is like adding a Gondorian Shield to someone first turn without having to draw it.   If you get a few extra shields on him, he can even help chump blockers survive an attack, which can be better in the long run.   But Beregond is still better.  

 

Yeah...he just feels kind of like a man (er...dwarf) without a country, ya know? I mean, if you really care about the defense then you're picking Beregond and if it's the Tactics Dwarf that you really need then Gimli's a much more attractive option in almost all decks. 

 

Also--quick point. Dori can't help chump blockers unless you are talking about chumping a Hero. He can only add his defense to a defending hero. If he could do it for anybody he would be a better card. Or if he could activate him after shadow effects reveal. But as is...

I was looking for a new bookmark, and he certainly performs well in that area.

Here is a Dori deck that may surprise you.   Also, if you need bookmarks, there are PLENTY of others that I can't even imagine a scenario that I would choose to use them in: Bombur (either version), A Watchful Peace, Beorn's Hospitality, Don't Be Hasty!, Doom Hangs Still, and Ever Onward to name a few.

Here is a Dori deck that may surprise you.   Also, if you need bookmarks, there are PLENTY of others that I can't even imagine a scenario that I would choose to use them in: Bombur (either version), A Watchful Peace, Beorn's Hospitality, Don't Be Hasty!, Doom Hangs Still, and Ever Onward to name a few.

 

To be honest...I think I would play Bombur over Dori in most decks unless I needed the extra Tactics resource and absolutely could not fill the slot with Gimli. 

 

Which is not to say that Bombur's good but...at least he has uses that I can build a deck around. Dori's ability is something I almost never want to use and he costs 2 more threat. The Sentinel's nice though...

 

EDIT: Hero Bombur, not ally Bombur. Now he's a bookmark. 

Here is a Dori deck that may surprise you.   Also, if you need bookmarks, there are PLENTY of others that I can't even imagine a scenario that I would choose to use them in: Bombur (either version), A Watchful Peace, Beorn's Hospitality, Don't Be Hasty!, Doom Hangs Still, and Ever Onward to name a few.

Doom hangs still is great in two player when you need to fight. It essentially serves as a better Grim Resolve when Valour. Ever Onward is great for the same reason in solo. Bombur hero is good in Ori decks, Watchful Peace is good against Return to Mirkwood and Journey to Rhogsobel, Bombur ally is great in Khazad Dum. Don't be hasty is an okay one of. Beorn's Hospitality though, maybe Bilbo-Treebeard Good Meal? Okay that one is bad.

Doom hangs still is great in two player when you need to fight. It essentially serves as a better Grim Resolve when Valour. Ever Onward is great for the same reason in solo. Bombur hero is good in Ori decks, Watchful Peace is good against Return to Mirkwood and Journey to Rhogsobel, Bombur ally is great in Khazad Dum. Don't be hasty is an okay one of. Beorn's Hospitality though, maybe Bilbo-Treebeard Good Meal? Okay that one is bad.

 

I'll give you some of those...in very specific situations. But Doom Hangs Still? Really? I would call that easily one of the worst cards in the game. 

 

As for the rest...Ever Onward is terrible but at least a little cheaper. Bombur has a place though between Ori and Bifur he's almost always bumped out for me. A Watchful Peace is actually a fantastic janky combo card if you're Quest-Building your decks, near-useless in general purpose decks. Ditto Ally Bombur, but with a much smaller number of usable Quests. And Beorn's Hospitality is terrible but I would still rather play it in a heavy direct-damage and archery Quest than ever pay 5 for Doom. 

 

EDIT: Although Doom does have some of the prettiest art in the game not drawn by Magalli.

Finished my first use of Dori in a live game. Situation was 3 player: my deck is a Tactics/Spirit deck with Dori, Thalin, and Oin. The second deck was Leadership/Lore/Spirit with Dain, Ori, and Thorin. Third was tactics, leadership, lore with Merry, Sam, and Pippen.


To address the expected immediate comment: we prioritized the Gimli ally over the gimli hero as attack power was not a great concern for the three decks, and defensive power and lack of sentinel was.


To the remainder, Dori performed extremely admirably in his niche - turning a GOOD defender into a GREAT defender. With Dori supporting Dain, Dain was able to tank the big bad as long as needed. When NOT buffing to mitigate a specific attack, he made an excellent sentinel defender across the three players. The versatility of play was extremely valuable. Overall verdict is that Dori, while definitely a niche player, has plenty of use cases and was definitely an asset.

Unexpected courage, in particular, was a valueable buff for Dori and was a key factor in the decision to splash spirit with the tactics deck.

I think some of you guys seriously underestimate "Doom Hangs Still"´s ability to completely turn the game around. No need to worry about sending anyone on quest and an entire freebee round to clean up the table.

I will grant that it is better the more players are in the game; this is by simple virtue that the more players are involved, the more unpredictable each regular quest-round is. Leadership is the resource-sphere in this game, so the card should be able to hit the table pretty consistently if you want it to. And you do want it to when you need to get your bacon out of the fire in a big way.