So, do stars really matter for supporters?

Algren

It seems they don't do anything except damage modifiers?

I got up to 8th arena rank today, everyone around me 6k higher and 5 7* lvl70 toons. I had hk, 88 and 86 lvl70 7* as they're the ones doing the damage. Then a lvl60odd poggle and poe, poe 3* poggle 5*. Being that poggle and poe are there for turn meter manipulation and buff, I don't care about their damage, or their health. So is there any advantage to staring these up?

I had the same thought with lobot, who I'm farming and had a second thought over because it would take forever to 7*, then thought, i want him for his pacey leadership ability, he doesn't need to do damage, and whatever his stars his damage will be incomparable to the droids anyway.

Algren

Even more so when you consider that apparently gw difficulty depends on arena squad power, all those extra stars on poe and poggle would have a minimal impact on my arena performance but a lot on my gw difficulty

Nahow

You're right that for certain characters the number of stars isn't as important, but there's always an advantage to having more stars.

For example, if Poggle has too few stars, he can be 1-shotted before applying his offense up. Same for Poe--yes he is there for turn meter, but it's a big bonus if he takes a while to kill. Increased damage output is also helpful, because it could mean the difference between killing someone and leaving them with a sliver of hp.

Also, if you have low-starred characters and a low power score, people may be more likely to attack you in arena.