Star-Lord (Stellar-Forged) Champion Guide

Star-Lord (Stellar-Forged) Summary

Star-Lord is a high damage, low utility champion. This new look at an old champion captures the essence of the original Star-Lord: massive damage. As he builds his combo throughout the fight and during a quest, he hits harder and harder. This new Star-Lord also has a reworked element gun with more control than his previous iteration. This element gun offers limited utility, but each element plays a clear role in boosting Star-Lord’s damage. Below, I provide a brief summary of each element and how they pair with other elements.

Earth - Inflicts a strong vulnerability debuff. This lowers the opponent's physical and energy resistance, which is helpful for his combos and critical incinerate. Pairs best with Fire.
Fire - Inflicts a critical incinerate that benefits from Star-Lord's critical damage rating (which gets very high). Pairs best with Earth.
Water - Gives Star-Lord a combo wave, making each hit grant +1 combo meter and critical hits grant +5 combo meter. Pairs best with Air.
Air - Pauses all of Star-Lord’s effects. Pairs best with any element but works best with Water if you are building up combo.

I’ll go into more detail on how to use these effects and when in the General Rotation Summary.

While Star-Lord doesn’t have much utility, the utility he does have is unconventional and effective where it matters. On top of that, there is one thing Star-Lord does better than any other champion. More on that later in this post.

As for Stat Focus and Statcast relics, I would recommend anything that increases your critical rating, because these increase Star-Lord’s damage more than anything else. The critical damage rating stat focus doesn't help much, because it quickly runs into diminishing returns. If you really like Star-Lord, you can give him the Winter Soldier relic, which can improve his incinerate damage.

Full Champion Abilities

Signature Ability – The Founder’s Skillful Awakening

While a Combo Shield is Active:

Precision Buffs on Star-Lord expire 50% slower.
During Star-Lord’s Special Attacks, he takes 75% reduced damage from all sources.

Abilities

A Lord Forged in ISO – Always Active

Star-Lord’s Stellar Enhancement grants him a Fractured Power Bar.
The hit following a Critical Hit has 10% increased Combat Power Rate.
The duration of Star-Lord’s effects all benefit from Class Advantage. The increased duration for Class Advantage is shown in brackets for each effect.

Combo Meter

At the start of each fight, Star-Lord gains a Combo Shield Passive for 30 (42) seconds.
Light and Heavy Attacks grant +1 Combo Meter.
Each time Star-Lord crosses a Combo Meter threshold of 20, he gains an indefinite Persistent Cruelty Charge, increasing Critical Damage Rating by +493.9. Max stacks: 20.
+127.62 Attack Rating for each Persistent Charge.

Heavy Attack
Each hit grants a Precision Buff, granting +964.29 Critical Rating for 15 (21) seconds. Max stacks: 2.

Element Gun – Rotation

Star-Lord’s Element Gun rotates through four elemental modes, starting with Earth, and rotating to the next Element in order each time the Element Gun is fired during Special Attacks 1 or 3.
The Element is also rotated when Star-Lord lands a second Medium Attack.

Element Gun Effects – Non-Stacking

Earth: Inflict a Vulnerability Debuff for 15 (21) seconds, reducing Physical and Energy Resistance by 1500.
Fire: Inflict a Critical Incinerate Debuff dealing 6381 Energy Damage multiplied by Star-Lord’s Critical Damage Multiplier over 15 (21) seconds.
Water: Gain a Combo Wave Passive for 10 (14) seconds.
Air: Pause all other Element Gun effects for 10 (14) seconds.

Special Attacks

Special 1 – Element Gun

The last hit fires the Element Gun in its current elemental mode.
If this attack is a Well-Timed Special, the next Element in order is also activated.

Special 2 – Rocket Kick

On activation, gain a Combo Shield Passive for 20 (28) seconds.
This attack is a Guaranteed Critical Hit.

Special 3 – Heroic Blast

Fire the Element Gun in its current elemental mode.
Each other Element can also activate with each chance matching Star-Lord’s current Critical Hit Chance.
Refresh all Element Gun effects.

My Thoughts on Star-Lord (Stellar-Forged)

I really like Star-Lord (Stellar-Forged). His rotation balances flexibility and skill expression very well and makes for a very enjoyable character to play. Star-Lord’s biggest drawback is his low utility, which limits where you can comfortably use him.

If the Deathless characters are any indication, there will be strong synergies between Star-Lord and other Stellar-Forged champions. I really hope that these synergies allow Star-Lord to counter miss, auto-block, evade, or unstoppable. Any one of these would make Star-Lord much more viable for various forms of content.

I also really enjoy Star-Lord’s ramp style. I’ll go into more detail on this in the “Best At?” section, but Star-Lord has the safest ramp in the game.

Does Star-Lord (Stellar-Forged) Need to Be Awakened?

No, Star-Lord doesn’t need to be awakened. He can be awakened (and ascended) via a relatively simple Carina’s Challenge, so I think it is worth the time to do that challenge.

Star-Lord’s sig ability has 2 clauses, conditional on his combo shield being active: one makes his precision buffs expire slower (including those from the Dexterity mastery), and one reduces damage during his special attacks. The first clause helps his damage out a bit, and his second clause is aimed at effects like power sting. His 75% damage reduction at max sig is not high enough to provide comfortable power sting protection, as even 25% of a power sting can hurt a lot.

In my opinion, the best use case of Star-Lord’s sig level damage reduction is for nodes that hit you with a big burst of damage if you violate specific rules (such as Hurt Locker). If you can time a special attack at the right time, a 50% direct damage burst can be reduced to 12.5% direct damage.

Overall, Star-Lord’s sig is helpful, but not essential to his kit. His ascension is a strong bonus, and because you can get both at the same time, awakening him is an easy choice.

Best At?

Star-Lord has the best-protected ramp in the game. Most champions have ramps that are restricted by expiring effects, getting hit, or ending the fight.

Star-Lord ramps every time he gains 20 hits in his combo meter by gaining a persistent cruelty charge. He can gain up to 20 of these and can gain them all in one fight or over multiple fights. The best part about these persistent cruelties is that they are charges, not passives. In terms of gameplay, this means that they are not subject to ability accuracy and they do not trigger abilities that are listening for cruelties to activate. This means that once Star-Lord has his cruelties, he keeps them for the rest of the quest.

While there are other characters that have highly protected ramps, they are all runners-up to Star-Lord (Stellar-Forged). Let’s talk about some of those runners-up.

Blue Marvel - He can bank his ramp over the course of multiple fights but needs to throw special attacks to access his persistent ramp.
Venom the Duck - He gets to bank and use his RNA buffs, but once the buffs are active, they are interactable with any number of Mystic abilities. He also has a cap of how many buffs he can bank in each fight.
Aegon - He has strong ramp protection but only gets to take a maximum of 80% of his previous ramp into the next fight.
J. Jonah Jameson - He has good ramp protection, and his buffs are protected from some anti-armor abilities, but not all of them.

This makes Star-Lord excellent for content with tricky RPG requirements that also requires high, consistent damage. Star-Lord doesn’t care about stalled fights, effect-removing nodes or even frequent deaths, which makes him resilient in tricky content.

Overlooked Interactions

Vulnerability Debuff

For a Rank 3, unascended 7 Star, Star-Lord's vulnerability lowers the opponent's physical and energy resistance by 1,733. For perspective, Spiral and Ironheart have vulnerability effects of about 650.

Note: For some reason, Star-Lord's vulnerability uses the fragility symbol instead. I'm not sure why it's like that.

Lower Damage (Sometimes)

Sometimes, it is better to temporarily have low damage with Star-Lord. One use case for this is Incursions, especially against an easy opponent early in the run. These defenders sometimes have nodes like Combat Deja Vu (Weakness) and Long-Distance Relationship. If you lean into getting these debuffs on you, they can heal you while giving you more runway to gain more combo so you can hit harder faster.

Matchup Summary

This is a list of matchups I wanted to highlight because they are good, bad, or tricky and force you to modify your normal loop.

Cassie Lang, Quicksilver, Scorpion, High Evolutionary, and Void

These fights are all similar because they reward you for gaining combo quickly. All these fights have additional RPG requirements that Star-Lord doesn’t have, so you need to play around them. Cassie Lang and Quicksilver both want anti-evade, Scorpion wants poison immunity (or good dexes), High Evolutionary wants a counter to his auto-block, and Void is immune to Star-Lord’s incinerate. These fights are risky, but they become safer as Star-Lord ramps up because he can just kill the opponent faster.

Count Nefaria

Count Nefaria has 90% incinerate resistance, so it’s not worth it to use Star-Lord's incinerate against him. Against Count Nefaria, I would use the combo building loop if you need it, then switch to only SP2s.

Thing

This fight is generally a good fit, but you just need to manage his rock stacks and be aware that your SP2 can trigger Thing’s protection. From my experience, other attacks will not trigger Thing’s protection cap.

Wow, Star-Lord (Stellar-Forged) Can Take...?

Absorbing Man

This fight is surprisingly good because of how Star-Lord’s playstyle lines up with how you are supposed to counter Absorbing Man. When fighting Absorbing Man, you need to counter his special attacks with your heavy attack. When you use your heavy attack, you get precision buffs which helps Star-Lord crit through Absorbing Man’s resistances. Just remember that Star-Lord’s precisions are buffs and can give a Mystic opponent Mystic Dispersion.

Enchantress

This fight is still a tricky fight but can work in a pinch. One thing that can help with this fight is that Star-Lord’s well-timed SP1 can help remove all spells in different situations. His SP1 is easy to intercept with (orange spell), can interrupt a heavy attack (green spell), and will knock Enchantress down (purple spell). Just remember that Star-Lord’s precisions are buffs and can give a Mystic opponent Mystic Dispersion.

Gamemode Summary

In this section, I’ll cover the general rotation first, then highlight the gamemodes where you may need to adjust your approach or pay attention to additional details to perform effectively.

General Rotation Summary

To start, I am going to describe 3 main rotations that I have found helpful when playing Star-Lord. These rotations are not set in stone, and different circumstances will call for different gameplay changes. Star-Lord is a flexible champion with plenty of room for optimization.

Well-Timed Special

A well-timed special has some similarities to a special intercept but is more generous in its timing. A well-timed special happens when you hit the opponent with your special while they are dashing forward or performing their own attack. I find that I am most successful with special intercepts when I dash back and wait to use it until the opponent dashes in at me. You can also interrupt the opponent's heavy attack with your special to get the same effect.

If you use a well-timed special, you fire your current element and the next element in your rotation.

This is an example of doing a well-timed special while the opponent is dashing:

This is an example of doing a well-timed special while the opponent is doing a heavy attack:

Heavy Attack Precision

Each hit of Star-Lord’s heavy attack grants him a precision buff. These precisions are easy to overlook, but they are valuable for both ramp speed and damage.

Combo Building Rotation

This is a rotation I really like for the start of Incursions, Alliance Quest, and Coliseum. In this rotation, you use your medium combo ender twice while building up to a SP1. Once you have enough, use a well-timed special to activate your combo wave and ability pause effects. From here, weave in heavy attacks and use light combo enders to maximize your combo gain. Once you get to another SP1, you can use it to activate your pause and keep your combo wave going even longer.

See this video for an example of this rotation. I am able to get 181 combo in a single combo wave.

Short Fight (Ramped) Rotation

Once you’re ramped (or close to ramped), you want to focus on damage using Star-Lord’s Earth and Fire elements. In this rotation, you use your light attack ending combos when you are on the Earth element and medium attacks to cycle back to the Earth element if you are not on it. You can also consider using the pause if your power gain allows it. If the opponent is incinerate immune or has very high energy resistance, use the SP2 exclusively instead.

See this video for an example of this rotation. I am not ramped in this video, but the principles still apply.

Long Fight (Ramped) Rotation

This rotation leverages Star-Lord’s SP3 and Fractured Power Bar to push his damage ceiling even higher. In this rotation, you build to the SP3 with light ending combos to keep the Earth element selected. When you get 3 bars of power, perform a well-timed SP1 to apply your vulnerability and incinerate. From there, use medium ending combos to cycle to your Air element as you build back to 3 bars of power. Use your heavy attacks to build precisions before throwing your SP3 before your debuffs fall off. When you throw the SP3, it will refresh your effects, activate your pause, and possibly activate your combo wave (based on critical hit chance).

See this video for an example of this rotation:

Incursions

Incursions is one of the biggest places Star-Lord shines. I have found that Star-Lord does well in this gamemode when he is your primary attacker and you build your hacks around his kit, with 2 supporting characters with strong immunities and the ability to counter a mixture of evade, unstoppable, miss, and auto-block. Because he has very high damage, the hacks you get should focus on immunities or RPG counters the rest of your team lacks.

In the early zones, you should focus on getting your combo up by using Star-Lord’s combo building rotation. Once you arrive at 20 persistent cruelties (or close to it), you can switch to the short or long fight rotation. However, in my most recent Incursions run with Star-Lord, the opponent never survived long enough to justify using the long fight rotation.

Coliseum

Because the goal of Coliseum is to dish out as much damage as you can before your opponent kills you, I like to use the combo building rotation once and then move into the long fight rotation, because it balances combo gain and damage. However, you may choose to use a SP2 focused rotation if the opponent has incinerate immunity or very high energy resistance. In any case, the amount of practice you get in Coliseum allows you to be strategic in how you use your specials, such as if you want to push the opponent to their SP2.