Repeating my comments from the "Cards we want to see" thread, I think what we need is a card that turns Dori's ability from being useful in rare corner cases to being more generally useful. (I see no chance of positive errata, unfortunately. Has there ever been errata in this game to make a weak card stronger?)

What I want is something that helps out Dori a lot, but doesn't have to be used with Dori. And that means synergy with his rarely-useful ability.

So his ability

1) Exhausts after defender is declared

2) Adds his defense to another hero's defense for one attack.

The edge case where this ability is useful is where you don't need Dori's attack or defense for anything, but you need to buff a hero defender to take some massive attack (or another player's hero when Dori's player has no enemies). I see two angles:

1) Get rid of the exhaust cost somehow. Without the exhaust, Dori can buff a defending hero and still attack (making him solo-friendly), or potential buff multiple hero defenders in a multiplayer context.

2) Give some extra benefit for adding defense.

For #1, something like this would really help Dori

Tactics 1 attachment -- Unexpected Valor. When a Hero exhausts not to quest, defend, or attack, exhaust unexpected valor to ready him.

This makes Dori useful even in solo, and the attachment is in-sphere. It's also extremely useful for other heroes with an exhaust ability (Beravor, Denethor, Elanor, Haldir, Galadriel, Merry), but most of the other heroes have once per round limitations and only Dori has the attachment in-sphere. The attachment would also be handy for attachments that exhaust themselves and the hero, but again that's not repeatable and only in-sphere for Great Yew Bow.

For #2, something like this would be useful

Tactics event (cost 1?) -- Counter-stroke. After a hero defends without taking damage, do damage to enemy equal to the hero's attack.

With that, Dori's loss of action advantage can be worth it, because by buffing the defense of a good *attacking* hero he can potentially enable substantial direct damage. Suddenly Dori becomes useful in a Gimli deck, serving as a defender most of the time but enabling the occasional massive counter stroke. But it's also a card that doesn't require Dori to be in play to be handy in a deck. (Maybe it should be "after a character defends", though?)

I think you’re right. I don’t remember any player card ever receiving positive errata. And I would love to see something come out to make his ability more useful.

As for your suggestions, I would love to see something like that ready effect but I would prefer it to be neutral at a higher cost. 1 is a little OP but in tactics I can’t think of anyone else it helps but this guy.

Here's a bold assertion: the only reason we think Dori is terrible is because Beregond exists. If it weren't for Beregond, Dori would be the cheapest way to get sentinel in tactics (your only other choice being Théoden). He's also a way to easily get to 4-6 defense without requiring too many attachments -- a great option for quests where the players have to weather many attacks of 5-8 (so the HoN+AtS cycle, or any quest with a troll or dragon in it).

The problem is that Beregond solves these problems more efficiently: with a single (free) attachment he defends for 6 on turn 1. Anywhere you might consider using Dori, Beregond is going to do the job better. The only thing Dori has on Beregond is that Dori is a dwarf, but once "tactics dwarf" is your criterion then the more generally applicable Gimli starts to look more attractive...

He came too late to be useful without a support card. He probably would have seen some play back in the Khazad Dum days, but in the modern card pool he's just a little too niche.

For what it's worth, my friends and I used Dori in a 3-player romp taking dwarf decks through Ruins of Belegost, and he was pretty useful. With just a single Ring Mail attached, he could combine forces with Bombur, Dain, or Gandalf to safely tank hits from the dragon without losing a hero. Stand Your Ground readied him up (along with Gimli ally, Gandalf, and Dwalin ally) to do it again. So he's not terrible, he's just not Beregond.

I just thought of small modification to Dori that would make him look much more attractive (at lieast to me) (not in a weird way, you know):

Response: After another hero is declared as a defender, exhaust Dori to add his [Defense] to the defending hero’s [Defense] for this attack. If this hero takes no damage during that attack, ready Dori. (Limit once per round.)

That, or maybe reversal - ready him if the defending hero takes damage. I dunno.

Having the ready attachment be 2-cost and neutral would make it more generally useful to other exhausting heroes, but less Dori-friendly. Dori's exhausting ability is least useful, so having it be a 1-cost tactic attachment allows you to buff Dori cheaply, but doesn't allow buffing the better exhausting heroes without including tactics.

It is true that (so far) it would only benefit Dori in tactics, though if it said "character" instead of "hero" it would work on Bofur and Honour Guard. It would also allow use with tactics events Hail of Stones and Rain of Arrows, but I doubt you'd use the attachment just for those purposes.

Repeatable attachments that would be benefit from "Unexpected Valor":

Elrond/Vilya

Galadriel/Nenya

Palantir (neutral)

Ranger Bow (lore)

Palantir of Orthanc/Aragorn

There is one attachment already that is already Dori-friendly, in the defend-and-don't take damage case, in The Day's Rising, +1 resource for defending without damage). It's leadership and requires a sentinel hero, so the obvious candidates for buffing would be Aragorn (starts 4 defense with Dori) and Erkenbrand (starts 5 defense with Dori, can cancel shadows for 1 damage but I think that'd stop the resource gain). The other sentinel heroes (besides Dori) are Lore Aragorn, Theoden (tactics/spirit), and Beregond, so if you've got enough players to need a defender *somewhere* you could Dori as needed to make this attachment pay every turn.

Having the ready attachment be 2-cost and neutral would make it more generally useful to other exhausting heroes, but less Dori-friendly. Dori's exhausting ability is least useful, so having it be a 1-cost tactic attachment allows you to buff Dori cheaply, but doesn't allow buffing the better exhausting heroes without including tactics.

It is true that (so far) it would only benefit Dori in tactics, though if it said "character" instead of "hero" it would work on Bofur and Honour Guard. It would also allow use with tactics events Hail of Stones and Rain of Arrows, but I doubt you'd use the attachment just for those purposes.

Repeatable attachments that would be benefit from "Unexpected Valor":

Elrond/Vilya

Galadriel/Nenya

Palantir (neutral)

Ranger Bow (lore)

Palantir of Orthanc/Aragorn

There is one attachment already that is already Dori-friendly, in the defend-and-don't take damage case, in The Day's Rising, +1 resource for defending without damage). It's leadership and requires a sentinel hero, so the obvious candidates for buffing would be Aragorn (starts 4 defense with Dori) and Erkenbrand (starts 5 defense with Dori, can cancel shadows for 1 damage but I think that'd stop the resource gain). The other sentinel heroes (besides Dori) are Lore Aragorn, Theoden (tactics/spirit), and Beregond, so if you've got enough players to need a defender *somewhere* you could Dori as needed to make this attachment pay every turn.

I actually think The Day's Rising could work with Erkenbrand's ability since he didn't take damage from the attack. The phrasing "takes no damage while defending that attack" is a little unclear though.

As for the readying effect I can see what you mean, but in practice I think I would still prefer neutral for its overall utility. Either way it would be a welcome addition to the cardpool.

Pretty clear to me. From the moment a hero is declared as a defender, until the attack fully resolves, that hero is considered to be defending that attack, and if he takes any damage, regardless of the source, while defending that attack, you cannot trigger the Day's Rising.

How can Dori not be terrible... I mean even the artist of the card got a headache realizing how bad the card is and sent us the message in the art:

In 2043 though we'll have plenty of cards to be able to go Caldara + Dori (and no one else) and pull some crazy combos

How can Dori not be terrible... I mean even the artist of the card got a headache realizing how bad the card is and sent us the message in the art:

In 2043 though we'll have plenty of cards to be able to go Caldara + Dori (and no one else) and pull some crazy combos

I actually love the art for this guy--honestly the biggest reason I want to make him work in a deck.

He doesn't look silly, doesn't look like a caricature. He's got this regal, serious thing going on that I like a lot.

Help for Dori ...

And how exactly is this makes him any better?

I don't see this card boosting the Dori's ability

The best that can be said is that this card works with Dori's ability. Dori has to exhaust for his ability, but there's no requirement for the other hero, so Dori can exhaust to add to a defense made by this card. But it's not really a card that rewards Dori for using his ability, and with the additive effect it gets with copies in the discard, it's not likely to need Dori's help to tank up, either.