Valorant Agent Guide: Sage

Sage valorant — Sage is still the most picked agent in Valorant. (Image credit: Riot Games)

Our Valorant Agent Guide will help you catch up to all the beta players who’ve been playing the game since April. We’re going to give you an overview of each agent’s abilities and how to use them. You’ll get easily digestible guides, one agent at a time. Today we finally take a look at the most picked agent – Sage.

Valorant has been out for over a month now and the game already received numerous patches. Sage got some nerfs in the last few months, but wasn’t too hit too hard by them and remains as viable as ever. The support agent is usually a must-have on every team as each of her abilities can be game-changing.

READ MORE: Valorant Agent Guide: Cypher

Sage’s skills allow her to have a great impact in almost every game. From the healing to the slow, to the wall and the revival, it really feels like the Chinese agent has it all too good.

Sage Abilities Guide: Barrier Orb

Sage’s first ability is Barrier Orb (default C). It allows her to target an area on the ground and raise an impassable wall. This skill received several nerfs. The health of the wall dropped from 1000 to 800, the duration was lowered from 40 to 30 seconds and the cast range was reduced from 20m to 10m. Despite all of that it remains a useful utility tool at the hands of Sage.

It can be used to completely block an entrance to bomb site, save a teammate or elevate them up to a higher point. The only way enemies can pass through the wall is by breaking it. Since it still has 800 health points, that’s going to take some damage.

Sage Abilities Guide: Slow Orb

Sage’s second ability is Slow Orb (default Q). Using it will cover an area with a lingering field that slows and grounds players that try to pass through it. Enemies running through the field will also make noise. Additionally, the air speed over the field is also slowed so it prevents bunny-hopping over it. The latter was an early method to easily get past the Slow Orb.

Thanks to Slow Orb Sage can block yet another entrance. Enemies will have two options. Rush through and make their presence known or slowly walk it out. Both are bad and if you catch anyone while they’re trying to cross the field their chances of escape will be low.

Sage Abilities Guide: Healing Orb

Sage’s signature ability is Healing Orb (default E). You can use it on yourself or an ally and heal up gradually to full health. With a cooldown of 45 seconds, you’ll use it at least twice per round in most cases. Note that if the target receives damage the effect won’t be canceled, just paused for two seconds.

The range on the ability hasn’t received any nerfs yet so it’s still very decent and will allow you to heal an ally defending the same site as you. At the time of writing of this article, Healing Orb is the only skill able to heal allies, but we have no doubt Riot will release more support agents in the future.

Sage Abilities Guide: Resurrection

Sage’s ultimate ability is Resurrection (default X). The skill has one of a kind effect as it’s able to bring a dead teammate back to life at full health. It also guarantees your teammate won’t have to buy another weapon if they win/survive the round. While the ability might be ranged, you need to be pretty close in order to use it. The channeling is rather short but still, make sure nobody’s around when using it as you’ll be vulnerable during the brief period.

Resurrection is arguably Sage’s most impactful ability as it brings back another player. There’s no RNG element in her ultimate and that’s something rare. The only unknown is whether the player you resurrect will actually help you win the round.

Sage Strategy Guide

As we’ve already mentioned above, each of Sage’s abilities can be a game-changer. Sage is best utilized as a defense agent, but her skillset will also allow her to take control of a site as an attacker. While playing as her, you’ll be lacking the mobility and the grenades other agents provide, so your main focus should be keeping your team alive. Whether that’d be through healing, using your ultimate or putting down a wall for cover depends on the situation.

Sage Tips

Healing Orb is only restricted by cooldown so make sure you use it as many times as possible.
When about to use Resurrection it might be a good idea to put down a wall using Barrier Orb so you don’t get ambushed.
Switching between abilities and weapons takes a little bit of time, so only do it when you’re actually planning to use the skill.
Don’t use your Barrier Orb too early into the round, especially as a defender. The enemy team might play it slow and just wait out its duration.
Boost yourself or an ally using your wall to give your team an advantage.
Use Barrier Orb to create unexpected angle through which you can peek and surprise your enemies.
When Resurrecting an ally, make sure the area is safe or you risk wasting your ultimate and getting both your teammate and yourself killed.

This concludes our guide for Sage. Keep your team safe and surprise your enemies with that wall!