User blog comment:FairyRaven/Fairy Tail Chapter 429 & 430: Code Blue & Purification Ritual, Review and Commentary/@comment-4933386-20150420123137/@comment-7418318-20150422075133

A bit of a shame she didn't get a bladed close-combat weapon along with her Taurus Dress. Taurus speciality is raw strength. A whip benefits only a little from raw strength and depends more on speed, skill and dexterity.

For whip fighting I suppose a Cancer Dress would be more usefull, considering how fast he is.

I too think that Star Dress as an ability in itself is not stupid, but I think it was a mistake by Hiro Mashima to show off one Dress after the next without having Lucy do anything with them.

The only time the Dress really had a somewhat meaningful impact on the story was the Leo Dress for the Regulus Lucy Kick, but even that was more of an introduction than a necessity to beat the enemy. Later Virgo could have dug the hole just as well without Lucy transforming and she didn't do anything other than being captured in it afterwards. The story would have been exctly the same (barring the occasional comment) if she hadn't used Virgo Star Dress at all during those scenes.

So to sum it up all we got to see from this supposedly useful ability was one enhanced kick and a bunch of fan-service pages. I really wish Hiro Mashima would only make Lucy use the Star Dress when it actually helps.

If he doesn't want to put her into a serious fight which could show off the usefullness of Star Dresses, Lucy shouldn't change into them at all and keep them in the backhand until they are really needed.