I really disagree with that reasoning, Fredius. I can't really see how a game option in skirmishes would even slightly suggest that each Ring hero is something set apart from the correlated faction or even a superfluous feature. I imagine that impressive efforts were put in time to make the Edain Ring system as unique and as recognisable as it is now; I personally deem it paramount to the very Mod's structure (fact that is well illustrated and thus rightly advertised on the ModDB Edain page). Following that 'skirmish logic', I guess we would still have only Sauron and Galadriel available via the One Ring, as it was in the past. The difference with the current system, tailored to every faction's characteristics, is immensely evident in terms of advanced and extremely fitting new possibilities.
Given that I already well explained all the lore references and the ancestral importance of Durin in the Dwarven mythology, I won't repeat myself. In light of that though, I consider the concept objectively too much profound to have it dealt with as something that must be added for the sake of adding. Despite understanding the core thoughts at its heart (several proposals were rightly turned down for this reason), I sincerely doubt that response could cover this issue decently and then provide us with a reasonable answer (what an answer like 'No, we decided to follow a new policy for the entire Dwarven faction and get rid of that old concept' may instead do).
No, that's not what I meant with my post. I'm aware of the amount of work that ET put into the Ring system, and I really admire their work. I wanted to explain to you why spells like Gorthaur or the Last Alliance can't be compared with what Durin as a ringhero was in terms of gameplay, and why it's invalid to remove an ultimate spell just for him. I will try to explain my point in a different way; the current spellbooks are all made in a way that complements with what the faction needs, and to ensure your victory in a match. However, the whole Ring system is just a choice, you can enable/disable the ring system in the skirmish menu, thus Gollum will never appear, and you will never get the bonusses that come with capturing the Ring. That's why the whole Ring system is not a necessity, because you can just play without it, and that's why Durin himself was never a necessity, because the Dwarven faction doesn't necessarily need him to win a match. Even with the Ring system enabled you won't always be able to build him if the enemy captures the Ring.
My point is that the current ultimate spells have already been integrated so well into the Dwarven faction, that they serve their role perfectly during a match. Replacing one of them with Durin, who was just a ringhero before, will disrupt this balance; that's why I don't think it is worth it to remove one of them for Durin, just for the sake of "adding him", not in terms of lore, but in terms of gameplay.
When writing this post I got a bit more curious about Durin, so I went and searched some info about him from tolkiengateway. After reading the article I started to doubt what value he could even have for the Dwarves. He was the oldest of the 7 fathers of the Dwarves, he erected the city of Khazad Dum, named some mountains and hills... and? Yes, that's about it; apart from those things he was just a Dwarven king, nothing else really :S. So why is he soo important to add to the faction, while he didn't even do anything in particular that made him stand out from the other Dwarven kings? I read the whole thread again just to find an argument in terms of lore which supports the importance of adding him to the faction, but the only thing I could find is that he is the oldest creation of Aule, and the fore-father of the Dwarves. That is not special enough to add him imo. Sauron's Gorthaur form has a vast arrange of powers that are tied to the lore, the Last Alliance spell gives us the chance to play with the heroes who defeated Sauron, but what did Durin do exactly?
P.S. It seems that I quoted one of your comments in my post before Walk, because I wanted to reply to it, but then decided not to. However I forgot to remove the quoted comment from the post, which makes it look like I replied on that particular comment
. I removed the quote from the post.