The guide on Sage — the main agent-medic in VALORANT

We continue our series of materials dedicated to the VALORANT agents. It's Sage’s turn, she is the signature agent whose abilities help teammates not only to restore health but to breathe new life into them.

It is important to understand that Sage is a supporting character whose abilities will not help in a shooting. At the same time, Sage is a sentinel, so she is very effective in defense and bombsite protection.

Summing up all the abilities, the agent can heal and resurrect the allies, build obstacles in front of the enemies and slow them down. We propose you talk about Sage — consider the agent’s abilities in detail and give a few pieces of advice on playing well.

The abilities of Sage

Healing Orb

When activated, it chooses a sphere that heals and restores health points both for Sage and her teammates. A player can use this ability a few times per round, which is important to consider in a slow-paced match.

It is difficult to describe the Healing Orb in a special way because its name speaks for itself. A player can heal an ally and increase the team’s chances in the next shooting.

Besides, Sage can restore her health points. However, it is not worth forgetting that the agent’s supporting ability is focused on helping teammates, so the number of health points that can be restored by a player differs depending on the subject of use.

How to control: Aim at the injured teammate who you want to heal. Press LMB to activate the gradual restoration of health points. Press RMB to restore Sage’s health points.

The key characteristics:

• Price — free
• Quantity — one
• Cooldown — 45 seconds
• Healing pause — 2 seconds
• Maximum healing — 30 HP for Sage/ 100 HP for teammates

Slow Orb

It is an interesting ability that you will have to buy at the beginning of every round. With the help of Slow Orb, Sage can release an ice orb that, when hitting the ground, will create an ice field and slow down opponents who get into this field.

The effectiveness of this ability can be described in a few cases. First of all, a player can use an Orb while retreating to stop an opponent. Secondly, when holding the bombsite, Sage can cover one of the passages to win time and plant a spike.

However, the disadvantage of Slow Orb is the absence of harmful effects like damage dealing or stunning. It is also not worth forgetting that tricky opponents can skean through the field and surprise with their appearance.

How to control: Press LMB to release an orb that, when hitting the ground, will create an ice field and slow down enemies.

The key characteristics:

• Price — 200 credits
• Quantity — two
• Duration — 7 seconds
• Deceleration percent — 50%
• Effect on jump height — 30%

Barrier Orb

With the help of this ability, Sage can build obstacles of ice that can be destroyed. The working principle of Barrier Orb is pretty interesting.

First of all, a player can turn a barrier to any side, which will neutralize all geometry issues of a map. Secondly, you can deploy a barrier under yourself, which will help to climb a higher position and surprise an opponent.

But as it was mentioned before, players of the opposing team can easily fight their way through the wall. Also, it is worth considering the length of the barrier, which only consists of four blocks. Relying on this fact, the deployment of the ice wall through objects can destroy the barrier and reduce its length.

The main objective of Barrier Orb is the deterrence of the enemies both when trying to get to a particular or moving between the bombsites.

How to control: Press LMB to deploy a barrier. Press RMB to turn a barrier before the deployment.

The key characteristics:

• Price — 400 credits
• Quantity — one
• Duration — 30 seconds
• Delay duration — 3,3 seconds
• Health points — 800 HP

Resurrection

This is the ultimate ability that becomes available to a player after earning 8 points. There is no sense in describing the ability because Sage can resurrect an ally with full health points with its help.

However, a player should be careful because there is a small delay before the resurrection, during which an opponent can kill your teammate once again.

The only thing is that Sage can’t resurrect herself, which is logical, considering the agent’s features and functions in the team setup.

How to control: Aim at the dead ally. Press LMB to active resurrection and wait till the end of the delay. A teammate will come back to life with full health points.

The key characteristics:

• Price — 8 points
• The number of resurrected allies — one
• Animation duration — 3,3 seconds
• Invulnerability duration — 2 seconds
• Vulnerability duration — 1,3 seconds

How to play as Sage well?

Considering the agent’s abilities, Sage will not be useful in the first contract with opponents. At first, her skills are useful in post-plant situations when it is necessary to heal a teammate, close the zone, and slow down the enemy’s offensive. Secondly, a player can effectively do the job of the defender, using all her spheres to create obstacles for the opposing team.

This is the idea of the sentinels who are supporting characters, on which a team can always rely. Probably, Sage’s main ability is Resurrection, with the help of which an opponent plays a round with 5 players against 6.

Considering the above-mentioned, Sage should stay at the second line of attack and cover the team’s back, and also work as a defender and not search for early contacts.

The main pieces of advice that can be helpful to play as Sage right:

• Use Slow Orb only when you are confident about the enemies’ location.
• Choose a moment to throw Slow Orb accurately because the ability works not only on opponents but your teammates too. If you choose the wrong moment, you might frame a teammate and allow an opponent to use the advantage.
• Do not save Healing Orb and use the ability as much as possible. In long rounds, Sage can save her teammates multiple times, which is important while playing as a team.
• Use the map geometry while using Barrier Orb. Find an interesting box and create a barrier to climb a higher position.

In such a way, Sage is a very useful agent who is very popular both in matchmaking and the professional scene. Logically, we are unlikely to see a sniper playing on Sage but Sage is a nice choice as a defender.

The diversity of the agent’s abilities allows you to cope with a few situations at the same time, both healing and creating obstacles to opponents.

However, it is pretty easy to learn how to play as Sage, so the agent will fit inexperienced players. The main thing is to practice and learn maps and corners to use all the advantages of the agent.