Depends on party composition. With a ranger, there aren't many ranger-specific items that you'd really want. It's different if, for example, you have a paladin or a mage. That sword is a great help for paladins (their raison d'etre, if you will) and many great high level mage scrolls are found in lower Dorns.
I like to complete everything to do except P____ in lower Dorns. However, going to HoW after the Severed Hand, as you did, is a logical breakoff point. Good magical items and spells, and, especially with a small party, characters are going to be a high enough level to get by.
However, coming back from HoW/TotL with 18+ level characters is rather overkill for Dorns Deep. That's why I prefer to almost finish IWD first. I find a lot of the later fights in IWD (against giants, e.g.) to be rather easy as it is, and it would be no fun to go into them with pumped-up characters.
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Where there is a great deal of free speech, there is always a certain amount of foolish speech. - Winston S. Churchill
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