Trainer of Jedi for 800 years. Master of the Jedi Council. General during The Clone Wars. Wise beyond wisdom. Judged not by size. The one, the only, Yoda!

Grand Master Yoda is gained in SWGoH solely via the, now, bi-monthly Grand Master’s Training event and has two Zeta abilities: Battle Meditation on one of his two Special abilities and Grand Master’s Guidance on his Leader ability. Today, we’ll be reviewing Master Yoda’s Special Zeta ability, Battle Meditation.

The Level 7 Battle Meditation text is:
Yoda gains Tenacity Up for 2 turns, then grants each other ally every positive status effect he has for 2 turns, with a 40% chance to also grant Yoda 35% Turn Meter. (Unique status effects can’t be copied.)

Upgraded with a Zeta, the text becomes:
Yoda gains Tenacity Up and Foresight for 2 turns, then grants each other ally every positive status effect he has for 2 turns, with a 40% chance to also grant Yoda 35% Turn Meter. (Unique status effects can’t be copied.)

The Zeta provides a singular, but powerful change by adding Foresight for two turns in addition to the Tenacity Up. This allows Master Yoda to grant Tenacity Up and also Foresight to all members of a team for two turns, allowing up to two attacks to render no damage and keeping almost all debuffs off team members for two turns. Paired with Qui-Gon Jinn (with a Zeta on his Leader ability), General Kenobi, or Barriss Offee, a Jedi team becomes formidable in Arena.

The key to the Battle Meditation zeta, however, is Speed! Yoda must go first and he must go often for this ability to have the best use. Yoda should have Speed at no less than 225, at the barest minimum, and ideally at 260+.

Grand Master Yoda Zeta Review

Gameplay:
Master Yoda’s Battle Meditation Zeta is excellent for allowing the opposing teams’ AI to apply Area of Effect attacks without causing damage and the Tenacity Up ensures that very few, if any, debuffs will apply for at least one if not two turns. Zeta Battle Meditation gives Master Yoda the ideal support role as it works extremely well with his basic and other special abilities. With Ataru, Master Yoda gains turn meter and additional Foresight and with Masterstroke, he can copy any non-unique debuffs from a target enemy.

The best use for Battle Meditation is to apply Tenacity Up and Foresight to other team members and, during the 4 turn cooldown, utilize Ataru to regain Foresight (if lost), use Masterstroke to copy a target’s buffs for 3 turns, use Unstoppable Force to stun and remove turn meter (where applicable), and then use Ataru once more before using Battle Meditation again to apply more Foresight and Tenacity Up along with any other copied buffs to the rest of the team.

Squad Arena:
After a long, stubborn fight to keep a zMaul Sith team relevant in Arena, I switched to the following team: zQui-Gon Jinn, zGrand Master Yoda, Darth Nihilus, General Kenobi, and Jedi Knight Anakin. I’ve gone from fighting my way into the 40s (with the occasional Arena refresh required) and waking up in the 60s or 70s in Arena to using 3-4 battles at my leisure to stay in the 20 or 30s and waking up in the 30s or 40s the next day.

As stated earlier, Speed is the most important factor to running Master Yoda’s Battle Meditation zeta. As this ability “only” provides Foresight and Tenacity Up and does not remove debuffs, it is very important that Master Yoda applies his buffs as quickly as possible. Also note that since the Battle Meditation Zeta is used to aid Master Yoda’s support capabilities, it is best to use a stronger leader, preferably one that grants either turn meter or Speed. Running Qui-Gon Jinn’s Zeta leadership with Master Yoda’s Battle Meditation Zeta will stand up well against Sith and also hard-hitting Wedge-led or Chaze teams.

Rancor:
By granting Foresight and Tenacity Up to the full team, Master Yoda becomes very useful against the rancor in Phases 2 and 3. Master Yoda can also remove some of the rancor’s turn meter with his Unstoppable Force. That said, Jedi are still not quite capable of fully defeating the rancor on their own. While Master Yoda and the Battle Meditation Zeta will help bump raid numbers, there are stronger options available.

AAT/HAAT:
Jedi are considered a standard team to run in Phase 1 of HAAT. I, personally, run a non-traditional semi-Jedi team of zQui-Gon Jinn, zMaster Yoda, Jedi Knight Anakin, Luminara Unduli, and zSavage Oppress. Many balk at my use of Luminara, but I find running her with Anakin provides Anakin with greater opportunities to hit harder with his Unique ability as other teammates drop below 50% health, since she can heal them after he hits and repeat the process. This team usually creates somewhere between 350-500K damage in Phase 1 of the Tank Takedown Raid, depending on RNG.

Master Yoda’s Battle Meditation omega works well in Phase 1 of HAAT on its own as it provides the necessary Tenacity Up that keeps General Grievous’ debuffs from applying, but B2’s Dispel often meant that the Tenacity Up wouldn’t last long (hence my additional use of Luminara to apply Ability Block on B2 to keep Tenacity Up a bit longer). With the Battle Meditation zeta and lots of Speed, everyone starts with both Foresight and Tenacity Up. Even if B2 ends up going prior to Grievous and uses his Area of Effect attack, the Tenacity Up remains in position and allows the Jedi team to continue to wreak havoc on Grievous.

Territory Battles – Hoth:
The addition of Territory Battles to the game has upended a lot of long-held practices within the game by requiring many characters that are not always in use in other places. That said, Master Yoda’s Battle Meditation Zeta remains extremely useful for Territory Battles.

Strong Light Side teams are crucial across multiple TB Phases, and a Jedi team with Master Yoda can often take a player straight through the Light Side combat missions. The best team to use with Master Yoda’s Battle Meditation Zeta would be zQGJ, zMaster Yoda, General Kenobi, Jedi Knight Anakin, and Ezra Bridger. If General Kenobi is out of reach, a non-Rebel such as Ahsoka Tano, Luminara Unduli, or CT-7567 “Rex” could round out the team as well.

How I Use Master Yoda’s Battle Meditation Zeta:
I utilize Master Yoda in Arena, in raids, and on particularly tricky Galactic War nodes daily. On an Arena shard mainly full of Rex+Chaze+Kenobi teams, Yoda+QGJ teams are fairly sparse, but as stated earlier, the team performs well on offense and also holds well on defense. Again, the key to Yoda is Speed. Getting Yoda at 280+ Speed will be necessary to consistently see Top 5 in Arena.

My Rating of Master Yoda’s Battle Meditation Zeta:
My rating for Master Yoda’s Battle Meditation Zeta would be 6.5/10. With Master Yoda in a fully supportive role, Battle Meditation is his most beneficial ability and it is pivotal in making Jedi relevant. The Zeta ability stretches across all team members, light and dark side alike, and aids in keeping “important” characters like Darth Nihilus alive for long enough to perform brutal attacks.

All this notwithstanding, Speed will make or break this Zeta ability. The primary reason why Master Yoda’s Battle Meditation Zeta works best under Qui-Gon Jinn’s Agility Training Leader zeta is because the latter provides +30 Speed to Jedi, which helps ensure that your Master Yoda will apply Tenacity Up and Foresight, hopefully, before the opposing teams’ turns. While great under a zQGJ lead, the ability loses its efficacy under other leaders because there is no guarantee that Master Yoda will not be suffering under a debuff at the time he tries to use the ability.

Also, because Speed is the single most important factor of this ability, this Zeta renders all mod options that don’t include the highest possible speed useless. As of this writing, my Master Yoda has 3 Health set mods, 2 Critical Damage set mods, and 1 Potency set mod since these were the best combinations I had to create the greatest amount of Speed secondaries on Master Yoda. Ideally, matched mod sets would be preferable to gain other stats such Critical Damage or Offense, but because Speed is what makes the Battle Meditation Zeta so useful, unless you have perfect mod sets, all with +15 Speed secondaries, you will likely forego matched sets in place of ensuring that Master Yoda is as fast as possible.

By Kaitco of Descendents of the Empire
Gaming-fans.com Staff Writer

Images courtesy of SWGOH.gg