Valorant Wise Guide
Sage is the support healer pick of Valorant, picking up the slack of her teammates to provide support and value beyond only getting kills. Think of her like a Mercy except with better versatility.
She is a simplistic character to play, with a kit that can be picked up and used to effect quickly by beginner players, and can offer some serious value and advantages when put into the hands of a veteran of the hero-based tactical FPS genre.
She comes with a resurrection ability that left many people skeptical at first, being that both R6S and CSGO don’t feature anything of the sort. However, the ability is not particularly overpowered. Combining that with her situational based abilities, she fits into the game nicely, and doesn’t disturb the balance of the gameplay.
Sage is a hybrid character, meshing two roles, crowd control (CC) and support healer, into one. Her ability kit reflects that, with it being split down the middle, two abilities dedicated to CC, and two to support healing.
Her first ability is barrier orb. This sees Sage throw out an orb that spawns a massive wall where it lands, preventing the enemies from passing through it. It is an excellent entry denial and is very similar to Mei’s ice wall. The barrier can be shot down but possesses enough HP for that to not really be a problem.
She follows that up with slow orb. This ability is relatively self-explanatory. It allows you to throw out an orb that explodes on impact, coving the ground with a substance that slows enemies by a whopping 70% when they pass through it. On top of that, the ability also heightens the sound of their footsteps, making passing through it a poor tactical decision. This is also excellent entry denial, but also has more versatility than barrier orb, as you can use it to cut off rotations and lane choke points more effectively. It has a surprisingly large radius, so you don’t need to be too precise in where you throw it.
The first of her support heal abilities is healing orb. Again, this is pretty self-explanatory. With this ability, Sage can restore herself or a teammate to full health, with a cooldown of 35 seconds. The ability doesn’t restore armor, however, but remains useful, nonetheless.
Sage’s ultimate is her aforementioned resurrection ability, titled, well, resurrection. With it, you can bring a dead teammate back into the round on full HP. This can be vital when it comes to winning a late-round team fight, so it should be used with caution.
You also run the risk of panic reviving someone with it, picking them up for them only to get instantly killed again by the same enemy. Those who have played Battlefield should be familiar with this.
This makes it the most skill-based of what is otherwise an ability kit with easy use, but a high skill ceiling.
All in all, this makes Sage an excellent support choice for those who want to focus on tactical based teamwork as opposed to merely padding their own stats.