Starter items

Core items

Offensive items

Defensive items

Introduction:
Welcome to the "Starro - How NOT to die" guide! My name is KerChowPow and I'll be your host for the evening.
All week with Starro on free rotation I've been witnessing scrubs turning our proud starfish into a scummy and hated feederfish. I have seen queues dropped simply because someone picked up Starro! So here I am, taking my time to make this nice guide to teach how to avoid being known as the team's tardfish.

The Truth:
Starro is underpowered, he just is. With far better blasters to choose from and other supports being infinitely more useful, where exactly does our gimpy starfish lie? In his current state, somewhere in between blaster and support, which is why he's so often a bad pick unless you're a skilled veteran player. Since this guide is aimed at those fellow newbies who were where I was at not too long ago, we'll simply focus on being useful to your team, and not become feederfish with our hands stuck in a bottle of glue.


Stolen Powers:

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Starting from the beginning, let's discuss Stolen Powers. You are building a support-heavy starfish, and your powers should reflect as such.
Recommended:
Surveillance Cameras: Always a great choice, information on enemy whereabouts is vital not only to you as a player, but to your entire team as well.
If you have it, Robin's Surveillance Camera is the optimal choice. Gaslight Batman's Surveillance Camera is another good choice if you don't have Robin's, and if you have neither then the stock is just fine too.

Healing Wave: While trying to be support, you'd better make an effort. Healing Wave is a great tool for saving teammates, prepping your team before battle, or even escaping with a sliver of health left. Beware if too many people are bringing Healing Wave however, the effect is diminished by 50% if someone else had recently cast their own Healing Wave.
If you notice you're using Healing Wave often in teamfights, consider using Arcane Green Lantern's Healing Wave or Poison Ivy's Healing Wave. If you enjoy healing for a greater amount, pick up Krypto's Healing Wave. And as always the stock is a solid choice as well.

Options you should avoid:
Invulnerability: You're there to help others, not shield yourself and cry in a corner.
Consume and Detonate: There's really not any reason you should have these

If you're feeling mischievous, you can start destroying enemy cams. Doing this gives you a couple benefits, clearing a brush so you can hide again, opening up a stealth pad for your jungler to gank in, and generally really annoy the enemy team. A power like Blue Beetle's X-Ray Vision would be best suited for this, but Green Arrow's Surveillance Camera could also work. The problem with the Green Arrow Cam is that it only provides stealth vision for 5 seconds. It's enough to take out any existing cameras, but if the enemy puts down any others you can't do anything about it. In addition, there's one less charge so you'll need to be constantly refilling it to be useful. X-Ray Vision is useful for finding cameras and chasing enemies through brush, but as a support it's not as useful as it could be.

The rest of options, like Super Strength and Psychic Assault can be useful, but they're really only effective in certain situations, whereas a camera and team healing are always useful.

Mods & Augments:

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This is a guide aimed at new players, so I won't go into this. Just stick with default and you'll be fine.

Items:

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The goal here is to keep you alive long enough to play the actual game while still being useful. And so long as you're participating in teamfights, the sheer amount of auras on you will help turn the tide of the battle. (hopefully you'll still be doing something actively useful)
Starting Items:
Abin Sur's Lantern (1) + Modular Health Vial (3)
This is going to give nice sustainability with Will Regeneration and Healing.

Next you'll want to finish off Abin Sur's Lantern (4), and then start building survivability.
*Note: Until you finish your first tanky item, you're going to be squishier than my grandma's boob. Whatever you do, don't die.

Item Progression: - Atlantean Royal Seal (4) - Cosmic Belt (3) - Oa Gambit (4) - Qward Gambit (4) - Ra's al Ghul's Robe (2)

Reason: - Health and Power - Health and Power - Aura - Aura - More Survivability

I had to format the second column with icons so they would line up

"But KerChowPow-Senpai, where's the situational items and offensive/defensive items?"
You don't get any choice, too many tardfishes have screwed up their build with glass cannon crap, and I'm putting a stop to that. Their team is all power damage? Build what I told you. Their team is all attack damage? Build what I told you. Their team is made up of mint fudge? BUILD WHAT I TOLD YOU. Stick to the straight and narrow, and don't worry about having to pick out other items.
At the end of this your team is going to be staring at you with awe


Abilities:

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You know what happened when I played Starro for the first time? I didn't read the skills. And you know what happened? I became a lowly feederfish simply because I didn't understand how he worked and didn't want to take the time to read those paragraphs of information. I'm here to dumb it down for you (you'd better say thank you).
Facts and Opinions:
1) Your abilites all have secondary effects, and are activiated through the use of Parasite, much like Sinestro's Yellow Impurity.
2) Parasite is utter HELL to try and land, and rarely can be done safely
3) All of your abilites, except for your Ultimate, are all hinging upon you managing to hit with your Parasite. Does this make it hard? Yes. Is it worth it waiting for Parasite? YES.



Q: Slow-Ass Purple Cone Thing: This is your nuke. It deals moderate damage, and nothing else. It scales off of a paltry 40% power damage.
Q: With Parasite: Deals far more damage, and scales off 60% power damage instead. Much better would you agree?




W: Parasite: Eh, we'll come back to this later.



E: Happy Pants Dance: Doesn't do anything.
E: With Parasite: Deals a nice amount of damage to all those that have Parasite. And it slows for a very nice amount. This would be a good skill if it didn't require you to first hit them with Parasite first.





R: The Bitch Maker:
You put a leash on an enemy champion and they become your bitch for two seconds. What them to say hi to your turret? Little lapdog would love to! Want the Enemy ADC/Marksman to have a playdate with your Assassin? OF COURSE HE WOULD! This is an incredible skill, and you don't even have to move to be effective. You can simply lock down an enemy carry and keep them in one place while your melee assassin reks 'em. Best part is? You don't need to land Parasite on them, in fact, it applies it for you! Blowing your mind yet?



W: Parasite There's a lot to keep track of, so I'll list it out for you.
a) it's a skillshot that will hit the first enemy it comes in contact
b) when in contact, they will take 5% more damage. Pretty insignificant, I know.
c) IF THEY DIE while Parasite is on them, a copy will emerge
c1) said copy is a dunce, and can NOT be controlled
c2) dunce will last for 120seconds, or until it's paltry amount of HP is reduced to zero
c3) the dunce will rush to the nearest lane and follow that path. Sometimes it doesn't and just stares at the ground picking the grass. Like I said, it's a dunce.
c4)If the dunce is farther than 1000 whatever-units away from you, it'll automatically kill itself. The best way to figure this is simple:
"Out of sight, Out of mind". Meaning that if you can't see it, it'll die.
d) Parasite will only last on someone for 3 seconds. That's a horribly short window to kill something, so it's best to either apply it right before death; or apply it early, get off a combo, then reapply it before they die
d1) IMPORTANT: If you hit the inflicted person, the timer will reset itself. This means either a skill or basic attack will reset the timer. It has to be Starro hitting them however, a teammate will not refresh it.
e) At max, Starro can only have 3 Charges of Parasite, as shown by the little floating stars around you. When you're below max Parasites, you'll slowly gain charges over time until you're back to full. In other words, if you miss three times with Parasite (which is frustratingly easy to do) you're SOL until they're back.
f) You can gain charges over time, OR pick up missed Parasites. They'll slowly flop over to you for pickup. It still costs Will to cast though.
g) Enemy champions can step on your missed Parasites. That's what we like to call being an asshole.
h) Your Ultimate will inflict the enemy with Parasite until your ult it up. That means if they die even a split second after your ult is over, you don't get a drone.
That pretty much wraps it up. Yes it's a ton of information, but give it a couple games and you'll understand everything.


Passive
The more slaves you have, the marginally more tanky you are. This is rarely useful however as most teamfights are not in lane, and if they are then the drones die almost instantly in the hail of AoEs. What your passive IS useful for, is whenever you make a slave, you regain health. A couple waves with good last hitting with W applied and you'll have regained a moderate amount.



Strategy, the Good Stuff:

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Lane Phase
Call out 'bot support' while in matchmaking to ensure you're going where you need to. The goal is to be in lane with your ADC (Attack Damage Carry) like Gaslight Batman or Green Arrow. You are there to keep them alive, harass the enemy, and feed kills to your ADC.
You want assists, not kills. And I'll let you know it's way easier to stack up on those than kills. Example:

The Assists Are Real...
At Level 1, poke around occasionally with your Q, lowering the HP of the Enemy Carry.
At Level 3, start dishing out heavy amounts of harassment. If Starro can land his W, he's one of the top harassers in the entire game.
Because Q is slow, you'd best slow down the enemy to compensate. Once the enemy has Parasite on them, hit 'em with E to reduce Move Speed, then smack them with a Q. Rinse and Repeat, and soon enough they'll be at quarter HP wondering what the hell just happened. Just because you're support doesn't mean you can't deal damage!
At Level 6 with your R, you can start guaranteeing kills and giving them to the carry. Pull the enemy into your turret, keep them still while your jungler is ganking, bring them back for another barrage by your ADC, it's all in your power to do this, and more!
Out Of Lane Phse
Honestly, just stick with a teammate. Pal around with ADC for a while, maybe help the jungler(s) set up wards and gank, grab a power relay, gank another lane with your ult; as long as you're not alone you should be fine.
Team Fights
Find the squishy, and LOCK THEM DOWN with your ult. Knowing squishies, they'll be wanting to stay out of the AoE fire and stick to the back. It's your duty to go fetch 'em and show them all the fun they're missing. Stick 'em right in the middle, and then hold them while your melee champions beat them to a pulp.
General Tips
Firing a Parasite up close like a shotgun has a very high chance of hitting.
If you're being chased, it's incredibly easy to land a Parasite. Land it, Press E for the slow + damage, get a bit of a lead and slap them with a Q just for making your life more difficult.

NOW GET OUT THERE AND SUPPORT YOUR FRIENDS!


P.S. If Turbine made a Patrick Starro skin I'd be soooo happy