The ring isn't necessary. With D10 and magic, it's hard enough for them to deal 5 wounds.
At 500 points, he would be fine in a death match type of scenario where the only objective is to kill the other player's troops, but in an objective scenario he will struggle.
At 750, you can take Sauron without the ring, a Taskmaster, a Shaman, Morannons w/shields, and regular orcs w/ spears (boosts numbers and is more points efficient vs armies with mixed defense values). Alternatively you can swap the Shaman to a Black Guard Captain and run Black numenoreans for the front line with Morannon support for the strength, to make more use of Sauron's Ancient Evil special rule.
The army could be Warband 1: Sauron 5 morannon Orcs w/ shield 1 morannon orc w/ shield and banner 4 orcs w/ spear
Warband 2: Taskmaster 6 morannon orcs w/ shield 6 orcs w/ spear
Warband 3: Shaman 6 Morannon Orcs w/ Shield 6 Orcs w/ Spear
For the Black Numenorean list: Sauron, Taskmaster, Black Guard Captain 15 Black numenoreans 15 Morannon's w/ spear (Drop both to 14 to give the Morannons shields; there will be 3 points left over.)
I think the smallest list you can fit Sauron into without sacrificing too much on numbers will be ~600 points.
You could run Sauron with mass goblins, but it wouldn't fit the theme as well. It boosts the model count by ~10-15(~30-50%), but the models will be dying much faster by comparison against strength 3, and will have less killing power, and you lose the task master, which is huge for Channeled chill soul.
Sauron can get his points back with channeled chill soul to kill large numbers of troops, and by shutting down heroes w/ transfix. With a taskmaster, you will average up to ~5 or 6 channeled chill souls instead of 3.
The Balrog is probably never worth it. No might, and no magic.
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