**** Star-Lord (Legendary Outlaw) ****

Unknown

His purple is considerably inferior to a bunch of 3* abilities.

Unknown

Phaserhawk wrote:

Lerysh wrote:

Phaserhawk wrote:

To me Starlord would be far better for beginning players over Fury, buecause of how he can vastly improve your 3*'s to higher power levels. The synergy with Captain America and Starlord is scary, and...Starlord plays stronger in PvE then Fury IMO which with Thorverine alive is not a bad spot to be good in.

Here's the question: Assuming unlimited ISO/HP (Sorry Phantron ) and a fully covered Star Lord, would you go XF/Thor/Star Lord or XF/Thor/Hood in PvE? If the answer is XF/Thor/Hood then Star Lord needs work.

Star Lord Pros: Purple can overwrite tiles. Has a purple for those times you SS Moonstone. Does better damage than Hood. Red might save your bacon once or twice. Accelerates your best colors (Green, Blue, Red)
Star Lord Cons: Doesn't accelerate black. Doesn't really accelerate much (IMO) unless you luck into some yellow, or save all your AP to finish the match right after using Yellow

Hood Pros: Accelerates all colors passively. Does decent yellow damage for those times you SS Maggia Goons.
Hood Cons: No purple on the team. Accelerates colors you are not matching (typically) so you get lots of purple and yellow AP. Low HP. Tanks Yellow/Blue with his low HP.

Given that I'm not convinced Star Lord's yellow is all that amazing, I would go with Hood. Star Lord's main advantage here is his 10,000 HP. Secondary advantage is Purple damage.

What's interesting is that if you can get his yellow out you make Dormammu half as effective, yes they get the AP, but you need less to have your skills go off. I guarentee though you will win more games with XF/4hor/SL than you would XF/4hor/Hood.

I think what is being lost is what Star Lord does but isn't listed in his skill set and that's he helps with bad boards more so than Hood. What's a bad board? Well it's usually 1 of 2 things, there isn't a lot of the colors you need on the board, or the colors you need are unmatchable. Hood won't help you if the colors you need aren't on the board, and if they are but not matchable, the AI more than likely doesn't have very many to steal. Star Lord can, if you can get 7 yellow, smooths out the problems and only tanks purple. How many times do you Smite then get a 3 match 9 red but need 1 more, Star Lord fixes that issue, because I usually have tons of yellow.

For anyone that plays Magic the Gathering, there were a set of articats in Tempest that were Medallions. The cost 2 colorless mana and depending on Saphire, Emerald, Ruby etc. it reduce the specific colors' costs by 1. They were so powerful in limited that they had to restrict them to 1 a piece because of how strong they were. Why, because it required you to have less resources thus more spells and higher winning.

Star Lord's yellow reminds me of this very much so, sure it's costs you 7 yellow, but it saves you 2 AP across the board. Sure this skill could blow up the next turn, but someone could have destroyed that arfifact in Magic. Given it's the AI but how many of us would purposefully match yellow to destroy that tile when going up against Star Lord? Why? Because we don't want 4 cost Headbutts, or 6AP X-Force's hitting us in the face. This skill turns every single AI cascade into +2 AP on everything but black and I do not like that. Sure a perfect scenario Hood will be stronger as he will slowly shutdown the team while you match green/black/blue/red and then obliterate the team but to think Star Lord's yellow has no value, yeah just dead wrong on that

But also, with those medallions you mentioned, you don't play them when you're going to die. Also MTG has much better examples of cards that would actually make Star-Lord playable(Priest of Urabrask, Etherium Sculptor). I'm really not seeing Star-Lord as better than Surgical Strike or Dormammu's aid. And we also can't discount that Hood is probably draining your enemy's AP(which in non-goon settings is always big)

john1620b

I don't think this has been posted yet:

I just tested using his 5/3/5 build in the PvE, and contrary to what his ability description sounds like, his purple DOES do the additional damage to the target character as well. So at max level, it's actually 6,424 damage to the target and 1,451 damage to the other characters.

I thought 4/4/5 was his best build, but now I'm not sure. That extra damage on purple is quite nice, especially on a 2-turn countdown tile you can place anywhere.

Unknown

I've played against quite a few team-ups, and except once (out of 4 times so far), I could clear the countdown tile.

It was a Team Up, so, I may have killed Starlord before the countdown tile went to 0.

Still not convinced in PvP, but more in PvE.

If only he was good against those crazy goons, I'd be a fan.

Unknown

Well, his red will push the crazy goons craziness out for 4 rounds, since they won't match it. And his purple does replace countdowns when placed, so... he's not terrible against goons. Thor with 4 yellow covers is better, but who runs that?

NorthernPolarity

Uh... purple dealing damage to the main guy as well is huge isn't it? That probably makes any non 5 purple build irelevant.

Unknown

Ok, but what do you give up? 2 AP deduction so 5/3/5? Red damage and AP increase so 5/5/3? Go 5/4/4 and give up the almost 100% damage increase at 5 red?

Ten AP plus 2 CD (plus can't be accelerated by himself without 5 Yellow) means purple is too expensive and time consuming. I'll take a 4/4/5 build over any 5/x/x build because of that reason alone. Red is his main damage. 7000 damage for 8 (6 plus 7 yellow) ap? Yes please. That's among the highest damage ratios in the game, and if you happen to be short on blue it's a better use for red than Thor.

I can see the pair of Star-Lord/Thor being good. I just don't see it being better than XF/Hood or XF/Thor, and in PvP where you only get to choose 2 of your characters, dynamic duos are the key.

Unknown

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Uh... purple dealing damage to the main guy as well is huge isn't it? That probably makes any non 5 purple build irelevant.

I mean. Purple is the only ability that does something, so obviously it's 5. Red will land in a match or somewhere you can match 4 and wipe like half the time and yellow literally reads "7 yellow: spend 7 yellow ap". Literally.

NorthernPolarity

Lerysh wrote:

Ok, but what do you give up? 2 AP deduction so 5/3/5? Red damage and AP increase so 5/5/3? Go 5/4/4 and give up the almost 100% damage increase at 5 red?

Ten AP plus 2 CD (plus can't be accelerated by himself without 5 Yellow) means purple is too expensive and time consuming. I'll take a 4/4/5 build over any 5/x/x build because of that reason alone. Red is his main damage. 7000 damage for 8 (6 plus 7 yellow) ap? Yes please. That's among the highest damage ratios in the game, and if you happen to be short on blue it's a better use for red than Thor.

I can see the pair of Star-Lord/Thor being good. I just don't see it being better than XF/Hood or XF/Thor, and in PvP where you only get to choose 2 of your characters, dynamic duos are the key.

Er, why are you building him for PvP when everyone except XF / 4or is irrelevant? He clearly isn't good enough to replace X-Force, so his main use is going to be for PvE. If that's the case, then I disagree that purple is too slow. There's this other ability that costs 10AP, is a 2 turn CD, and can be placed anyways called I Got a Plan, and last time I checked that was pretty sweet in PvE.

I'm thinking any of the 5 purple builds are probably fine:
5/3/5 - screw over yellow, but get an okay red out of it.
5/4/4 - make yellow usable, make red poor
5/5/3 - make yellow synergize with purple, make red unplayable.

Unknown

IGAP is 11 AP, and also does more than 8000 damage if you keep the tiles around.

Even in PvE, His purple is lack luster comparitively. Imagine a node where you SS purple, say Juggs, Bullseye, Moonstone. Would you bring:
A) Thor/Star-Lord/XF with 5 Purple covers (9326 damage front loaded to single target)
Thor/Deadpool/XF with 5 Purple covers (12,207 damage even split)
C)Thor/Nick Fury/XF with 5 Purple covers (3,238 damage, steals probably 0 Purple, Str 539 strike tile)
or D) Thor/Hood/XF and kill them with Green/Blue/Red (Dormammu's Aid)

Unless the answer is A then Star-Lords purple is irrelevant in PvE also. For me the answer is B or D.

NorthernPolarity

Lerysh wrote:

IGAP is 11 AP, and also does more than 8000 damage if you keep the tiles around.

Even in PvE, His purple is lack luster comparitively. Imagine a node where you SS purple, say Juggs, Bullseye, Moonstone. Would you bring:
A) Thor/Star-Lord/XF with 5 Purple covers (9326 damage front loaded to single target)
Thor/Deadpool/XF with 5 Purple covers (12,207 damage even split)
C)Thor/Nick Fury/XF with 5 Purple covers (3,238 damage, steals probably 0 Purple, Str 539 strike tile)
or D) Thor/Hood/XF and kill them with Green/Blue/Red (Dormammu's Aid)

Unless the answer is A then Star-Lords purple is irrelevant in PvE also. For me the answer is B or D.

I mean if it takes 6-8 turns for IGAP to deal 8k compared to the instant Starlord damage, I'd say that the two skills are pretty comparable.

Going down the list.

Starlord's purple is 4973 + (1451*3) = 9.3k damage for 10 AP + removing a goon CD tile (932 damage / AP). Whales is 12k damage for 14 AP which is 857 damage per AP, but it also costs 14 AP. Furthermore, Starlord's damage distribution is a lot better since PvE has to do a lot with downing the first guy. Coupled with the fact that Starlord yellow fares much better than Deadpools... nothing else, Starlord feels like a no brainer here.

C) Escape plan is so much worse than Starlord's purple that this isn't even an option: the strike tile is significantly more unreliable than Starlord's tile, and 3k damage is a pittance. You could argue Fury yellow vs Starlord's yellow, but Starlord's purple is so much better that it's a no brainer.

D) This one is arguable, but given that Hood tanks blue (which is like THE color to get with 4or), yellow, (purple?), and has 5k HP, I'm not sure this is really all that better than actually having a purple outlet for surgical.

Honestly you should have included loki into the mix: I would 100% take XF / GT / Loki over XF / GT / Starlord since Loki fills in the holes for XF / GT much nicer than starlord does.

That being said, I think that Starlord is much better than DP / Fury in that team, and probably better than Hood.

Given how this is the case, I'd imagine that Starlord can't be that bad of a character since he's clearly better than some of our alternative options, and that he has some relevant use in PvE. Purple being basically call the storm for 10 Purple AP is kind of a thing.

Unknown

Incidentally, I can confirm that having more than one red or yellow tile doesn't "stack," if anybody was unsure.

Unknown

gamar wrote:

Incidentally, I can confirm that having more than one red or yellow tile doesn't "stack," if anybody was unsure.

Even worse. Thanks for reporting it, though.

Polares

gamar wrote:

Incidentally, I can confirm that having more than one red or yellow tile doesn't "stack," if anybody was unsure.

Yeah I can confirm it too. I fired two yellows yesterday and power cost was reduced just by 2. A real pitty it doesn't stack

OzarkBoatswain

Here are the characters that I think will work well with S-L's yellow power, Everyone With Me. It works best with non-black low AP attacks which can be cast multiple times, and preferably green or blue ones since S-L doesn't have powers in those colors.

Cap A: Cap's red CD gains 1 more AP than it costs, and his blue CD breaks even. Downside is red overlap. (I'd usually go with Cap's red.) Also, S-L + Cap + Hood is mixed bag since Hood can reduce the yellow CD. (Still worth it IMO.)

Spider-man: 3 AP stun? Yes please. Add in Venom 5/4 for extra stun silliness.

Devil Dino: 1 AP board mixup (with EWM at 5 covers) could lead to very some long turns. 5 AP attacks. Red overlap. (Also purple, but geez it's 1 AP.)

Thor GT: Cheaper Power Surge could lead to some stunloop. No board movement in her powers so the CD will last a while. Red overlap (and yellow, but who cares).

Daken: 3 AP chemical reaction. No downsides.

3* Human Torch: Fireball is effectively 4 AP, which is 887 damage per AP. (Star-Lord's red is 1166/AP with EWM if it goes off.) Only 3 AP to put a Flame Jet CD out -- not a move to spam, but you'll have more green left in the reserve.

OBW 1/5/5: 3 AP Agressive Recon for up to 8 AP (with EWM at 5). Other builds are also decent. Purple overlap.

Rag: 4 AP attacks.

Juggernaut: 4 AP attacks. Balance of Power only, but he'll be great.


Ones I am less sure about:

1*/3* Storm: 8 green AP for 14 AP is very good, but the CD has a good chance of being destroyed. XF Wolvie has the same problem.
Rocket & Groot: Good active colors but they are fairly expensive.
Gamora: 3 AP attack, but red + black.
Loki: 3 AP great board mixup. Downside: purple + black.
Elektra: If you have 5 EWM covers, her purple goes to 5 AP, and could be extremely good against Daken and Blade. Downside: purple + red + black.
Deadpool: 4 AP ALOTT, but red + purple.

OzarkBoatswain

I'd like to see these two things tested regarding his yellow CD. I don't have a Star-Lord to test them myself.

Does Psylocke's red go below 5 AP? Its description says "min cost 5". Also, if you're hit with his red CD, is the minimum increased?
If the CD is in a bubble or spider-bag, does it still reduce AP? (Also other effect CDs like his red and Colossus's yellow.)

simonsez

Ozark Boatswain wrote:

Here are the characters that I think will work well with S-L's yellow power

Why is black a downside?

dr tinykittylove

Ozark Boatswain wrote:

I'd like to see these two things tested regarding his yellow CD. I don't have a Star-Lord to test them myself.

Does Psylocke's red go below 5 AP? Its description says "min cost 5". Also, if you're hit with his red CD, is the minimum increased?
If the CD is in a bubble or spider-bag, does it still reduce AP? (Also other effect CDs like his red and Colossus's yellow.)

Psylocke yes, my 1 yellow cover brings psychic knife to 4ap.

Putting the cd in both force bubbles and spiderbags negates the ap-reduction. Just tested it with my iw/bagman.

OzarkBoatswain

simonsez wrote:

Why is black a downside?

S-L's yellow doesn't reduce black powers.

simonsez

Ah... that's more like a wash rather than a downside