Starfall Archers Star Strike continous effect - am I missing something?

[Trukson]

Im always excusing myself as a noob, so I guess i´ll start by stating ere aswell that ive only played a handful of matches so far.

I love the SFA, between beeing able to Snipe and Brutal shot they bring a world of hurt to those who would oppose the Retribution.


But I still have to get a grasp on the Star Strike. It is a 33% chance of not doing any damage at all, and even IF it does damage it is lagging one turn. Im no mathematician, but given a hitrate of about 50% (that is, versus DEF 12) I gather that the dmage output is about the same.
1. Turn X. Hit. With SS = no damage / Without = POW 12
2. Turn X+1. Miss. With SS = 66% chance of 12 POW / Without = no damage.
3. Turn X+2. Hit. With SS= 48% chance of POW 12 / Without= POW 12
4. Turn X+3. Miss. With SS = 28% chance of POW 12 / Without = no damage.

So over the course of 4 turns there is only 28% chance that I do EQUAL damage to shooting directly. This is ofcourse not taking into account outside factors such as melee, brutal shot, the target dying from this or other sources etcetc.

It just seems very meh to me. Am I missing usage here or is it just more of a situational shot than the others?

[Gho5t]

It works great on shield wall infantry; the continuous effect is resolved after Shield Wall goes away, so is usually more likely to deal damage.

Also, there are abilities/buffs that can prevent you from wanting to deal damage to the enemy's models. The Starfall doesn't do damage, so avoids such things. For instance, if a model deals damage to any of the enemy's models, the attacking model suffers one point of damage. Starfall bypasses this.

[Kallas]

It is a more situational shot: punish Shield Wall/Defensive Line clumps and when models use Girded (models B2B with Girded are blast immune) and other blast immunity shenanigans, you can hurt them.

It's just situational; sometimes brilliant, sometimes balls.

[Mastershake]

It is a more situational shot: punish Shield Wall/Defensive Line clumps and when models use Girded (models B2B with Girded are blast immune) and other blast immunity shenanigans, you can hurt them.

It's just situational; sometimes brilliant, sometimes balls.

The Legion warlock has it right

Star Strikes won't trigger Vengence, get around shieldwall and other Round based buffs (Piper giving Tough for example). They're also solid vs. trolls because setting Tough models on fire messes them up pretty badly often forcing the Fell Caller to make them stand up rather than giving Pathfinder etc.

Situational, but the opponents who have lost entire units to the Stormfalls remember the unit as "the guys who set things on fire" as opposed to most players who simply remember them as "The carpet bombers"

[Bloodshovel]

It's pretty good for killing things that gain tough on orders too as the fire roll occurs before they can get tough back up, good for 8+ wound solos too.

[Fathoym]

MY personal best use of SS, againts Constance Blaize. My opponent ran 2 full unit of Precursor Knights and 1 full unit of Sword Knights right up the table at me turn 1 and popped feat. So what does any self respecting Retribution general do but punish them with fire.

SS definitely isn't something you should be using in every game. But it's a pretty useful tool to have in your arsenal.

[ForceFields!!!]

Yeah SS on the SFA isn't too powerhouse but it gives them much more utility. Its is my personal favorite way to get around pStryker's feat turn and Man O War Shock Troopers

[Vicarious]

Another hilarious trick for Star Strike is to run a standard bearer near an enemy warnoun and shoot him in the back to set them on fire.

Star Strike is absolutely the least commonly used shot that the archers have, but it's far from useless. The flame shot is worth it's weight in gold when you have those quirky situations where setting things on fire can win you games.

[bakaryu]

The problem with that is hitting with the in combat penalty much of the time.

Also great for dealing with mini feated zealots.

[joelker41]

Star strike wiped out 9/12 Iron Fang Pikemen the last game I used them LOL.

Star strike is a very scary ability if people aren't ready for it. Setting bane knights on fire is cool, but my favorite use right now is offering a heavy to a few low POW non reach infantry (engaging a few so they aren't all charging) and then star strike the heavy.

[Kalki]

The problem with that is hitting with the in combat penalty much of the time.

Could you possibly go around this by putting the standard bearer to the side of the warnouns back arc since the bearer himself lacks a weapon and shouldn't have a melée range? I don't have the rule book with at the moment so not sure if this is correct. This also assumes that you're able to avoid a free strike from the warnoun in the first place.

[Murkhadh]

The Legion warlock has it right

rofl, so good. :-P

[Murkhadh]

The problem with that is hitting with the in combat penalty much of the time.

Also great for dealing with mini feated zealots.

If the warnoun and the model your sending don't have reach this in-combat is easy to avoid, if not you have to move them further to get them back to back.

[Kallas]

If the target you want to set on fire doesn't have reach, you can run the standard bearer to a little over half an inch away/up to .91 of an inch. Easier with someone who has a melee range, but if you have good judgement, you'll be fine.

Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm dragon-y.

Wait, angry! When I'm angry!
[/flee]

[Ralphus]

I've also found that Stormfall's Starstrike works amazingly well against Menoth Zealots during their mini-feat turn. I've had a few games against them where they moved into position and mini-feated thinking they were safe, only to be set ablaze during my turn and killing half the unit during his turn. I would recommend not doing it to a eFiora though. You don't want her to have access to your fires.

[Pinegulf]

Continuous fire bypasses warcaster overboosting too, so if one is sitting next to a warjack (easy to hit) then lighting them up is a good idea.

[Craaag]

As a Menoth player I fully support the use of Fire continuous affect and can attest to it's effectiveness.