While I've always liked his thematic ability, I overlooked this card for a while. Playing a dwarf deck one handed against The Watcher in the Water convinced me of its value.

I've typically built a dwarf deck around Dáin Ironfoot and used him as the primary defender with his naturally high / and gained actions through Unexpected Courage, Erebor Record Keeper, Cram, etc (no big innovation there). Often as Dáin takes on all comers, his can start to take a dive with repeated attacks. At this point in my card pool acquisition, Warden of Healing is my preferred source of restoration. And naturally the warden is great at healing two characters 1. So there is a fine combo with Dori, spreading out the damage a little so your tank and healer don't get overwhelmed. (This has been a problem for me in the mentioned quest since Mountain Wargs and various tentacles can be difficult to dispatch and frequently you have to figure out a way to just defend several attacks successfully for a couple rounds.)

Also, in a pinch Dori can be sacrificed if a shadow effect catches you unprepared and would result in the loss of a hero. Additionally, you can elect for an undefended attack knowing Dori will take the fall. It might give you some much needed flexibility.

Obviously Dori needs to exhaust to use his ability so you're (generally) saving him for the combat phase and if his damage smoothing ability isn't needed, he has a respectable 2.

It seems like I'm one of the few that considers Dori to be terrible, so I thought I'd elaborate on my feeling toward the card.

First, his stats. You'll find cheaper attackers in lore, such as Loyal Hound, Emyn Arnen Ranger, and Quickbeam. In even in a dwarf swarm deck you'd be better off playing Bifur or a cheaper lore dwarf.

Ok, so you're playing him for his ability.

Second, his ability. Let's break it down. If you are using it on a huge attack that is going to kill a full health hero, it's going to kill Dori instead. In which case it's more cost effective to be using a cheap chump ally. If you're using it to siphon off just 2 damage from a hero that is near death (so that Dori doesn't die and can be healed and used again) you'd be better off just having Self Preservation on that defender instead, as it would not only save the hero but actually provide the healing as well (with the Dori strategy you still need another card to perform the healing). If the lack of flexible target is an issue for Self Preservation, look to Daughter of the Nimrodel instead (though I think Warden of Healing is even better even if it only heals 1 damage on each target).

Well, what if the defender can't be healed? Ah, now we get to it. This guy is amazing in a Beorn deck right? Wrong.

Let's break it down again. If you're using this guy to save Beorn from a huge hit, it's going to kill Dori, in which case a 1-cost chump ally would have been better. So that's not why people think he's good. People think he's good because if Beorn gets attacked by an enemy with 2-3 , Dori can siphon off the damage to Beorn. Because while Beorn can't be healed, Dori can - and can then be used again the next round. This strategy keeps Beorn alive for longer.

And it works, to an extent. But you know what's better than Dori for protecting Beorn from 2-3 enemies? Simply defending them with a Defender of Rammas! They're cheaper, they can defend up to 4 (which would kill Dori), you can have multiple of them in play, and they don't require healing every round! And if a surprise shadow attack puts an enemy up to 5 , your Defender of Rammas will die, but so would've Dori. But least you've saved Beorn from taking 4 damage, and the Defender of Rammas is cheap to replace.

There you have it. Even in Dori's ideal use case he gets blown away by a staple ally. Put this card back in your binder.