TL:DR; Sage should be used to slow enemy pushes, heal teammates and lock down sites on both defense and offense. You should rarely be the first engagement with Sage, unless you’re peeking surprising angles using walls and an Operator. She’s a good agent to be the primary spike carrier for the side.

Sage is often characterized as a support agent in Valorant even if she is technically classified as a Sentinel, who are usually agents who deal with flankers and hold down sites on their own while grabbing information.

Knowing how to use Sage and her kit will allow you to use her in offensive and defensive situations.

Sage can even be used aggressively in lots of setups, so she’s far from a typical Sentinel or healer that could be found hiding in the background every round.

This Sage agent guide will show you why she is one of the best agents in the game; teaching you about walling, positioning, healing, and more.

Sage’s Abilities

AbilityButtonCostDescription
Healing OrbEFree – 1 charge (30 seconds cooldown)EQUIP a healing orb. FIRE with your crosshairs over a damaged ally to activate a heal-over-time on them. ALT FIRE while Sage is damaged to activate a self heal-over-time.

Used mainly to heal and support allies
Slow OrbQ100 – 2 chargesEQUIP a slowing orb. FIRE to throw a slowing orb forward that detonates upon landing, creating a lingering field that slows players caught inside of it.

Used mainly to prevent players from aggressively peeking or pushing areas
Barrier OrbC400 – 1 chargeEQUIP a barrier orb. FIRE places a solid wall. ALT FIRE rotates the targeter.

Used mainly to cover entryways and provide unusual boosts to create unique angles
ResurrectionXUltimate – 8 PointsEQUIP a resurrection ability. FIRE with your crosshairs placed over a dead ally to begin resurrecting them. After a brief channel, the ally will be brought back to life with full health.

Used mainly to secure rounds by creating a numbers advantage

Using Slow Orbs

Sage Slowing Push

Sage’s Slow Orbs are very effective when used on entry points your team does not want to get flanked from. Your team can only cover a limited amount of angles when pushing and Sage can help punish people who would decide to peek aggressively through the slow.

It is very cheap and can even bring value to pistol rounds when the round is usually started with attackers bringing a numbers advantage in pushing.

Sage can delay how each enemy would show up and gives time for the defenders to engage in a 1v1 duel rather than being overwhelmed immediately by the sheer number of attackers.

Can be purchased along with a Ghost set up or just a shield during the pistol round.

Another strategy or mindset in using the Slow Orbs is by throwing it all over the site while pushing with your team as an attacker.

The best example of this would be attacking Icebox’s A Site. When your team is about to attack the A Site, you can throw Slow Orbs over the top and make it land at the back of A Site and A Screens.

This prevents the enemy from turning back completely and eventually wait for a full team retake. They will be forced to defend the A Site and try to get a pickoff, but this is where your team’s utilities come in handy.

Throw utilities such as flashes, stuns, information gathering abilities, and “mollys” (deterring abilities like Brimstones’ Incendiary) and make the enemies defending fight with a huge disadvantage.

Using Healing Orbs

The use of this ability is quite obvious and it is to heal and provide extra value for engagements during a fight. Sage players might tunnel vision when trying to use Healing Orbs and get picked off while trying to heal others.

It is not a question of how to use Healing Orbs, but It is knowing when to use them. Always remember that sometimes if you have teammates with you fighting and you are near, it is best to support them with gunfire support rather than pulling out a Healing Orb.

As an advanced tip, knowing the damage output of the weapons in the game will be beneficial for Sage players. How? Let’s say the Vandal does 30 damage per bullet on the body and you have a teammate with 29 health and a teammate with 89 health.

If the teammate with 89 health has more utility (even with an ultimate ready) or can play a more significant role during the same round, I would heal the teammate with 89 health instead of the low HP one.

That one bullet can matter big time, but obviously, they can both be saved by the heal so these situations may seem insignificant if it doesn’t play out well.

Walling

Barrier Orb is Sage’s best ability but it is also the most expensive one in the game. It is used to block wide entry points and boost yourself and your teammates to higher angles.

Be careful when using the boost for yourself as it can leave you defenseless for a brief moment and enemies who are aware of it can get an easy kill on you. It is best to use boosts for teammates with a few exceptions.

We put a video together showing the best Sage wall spots on every map for defensive play and aggressive boosts too:

With all these things the Barrier Orb can do, it can also act as a line of sight blocking ability. It is better in a way that enemies cannot blindly spray through it and get lucky.

It can also be used to shield teammates who are discovered whether through Sova’s Recon Bolt, Fade’s Haunt, or Cypher’s abilities.

Sage Wall

The main purpose of walling is to block a whole entry point whether it is for attacking or defending. As a defender, you will be notified on the map if the wall gets broken and your team can immediately know that there is an enemy near the area of the wall.

In fact, you can even count how many different weapons were shot when the wall is being shot down.

Let’s say you are defending B on Split. Sage’s most popular wall is just blocking the mid-area. It may seem natural now, but most people don’t know why it is good.

When enemies are trying to push B, walling mid allows defenders to freely focus on the B Main. Defenders holding B Heaven will feel safe and can freely assist the B Site defense.

Even if they don’t push B and they are pushing A, you can wall mid to prevent a fast rotation to B if ever their push fails on A. The only time it may seem worthless is if the attackers have complete control of A Heaven already instead of just A Ramps.

When to Ult

The Resurrection ability is pretty straightforward. You can get a teammate up and increase your advantage in numbers for the round. It is smarter to use this on rounds where you have a better shot of winning the round.

You can also use it when the round is too crucial to winning. For example, the enemy team does not have a good economy but was able to go for a full buy round. Securing this round by using your Resurrection can lead to 1 to 2 more rounds won assuming you win against a team on an eco round.

For some tactical play, you can use Resurrection as bait to force the enemy to re-peek. If you feel that the play is too risky, you can use Sage’s wall for your dead teammate as a safety before reviving. Just remember that when you revive a teammate, they float in the air for a brief moment.

Enemy players on the high ground can see above the wall and get an easy shot on your resurrected teammate. An example would be A Short in Bind as an attacker.

If you have a teammate down on A Short near the teleporter area, walling them off for a resurrect will still leave them open against a player holding A Heaven.

Sage’s Resurrection ability needs a total of eight points to use the ability. It will be hard to accumulate and most Sage games will only have a total of two resurrects (one per half) per match.

The trick is always to grab the ultimate orbs on attacking. You can also be the team’s spike planter, but this can be a little bit annoying in public matches because you are usually the biggest bait on the team by planting each round.

You need to be absolutely safe when planting or have some cover you while planting. The sound cue for planting already gives your exact position away to experienced players and the enemies can easily trade their lives to get you even if you have teammates covering.

For defending, it is sometimes better to quickly rotate to the other site than getting the ultimate orb on your empty site. Just remember that you do not need to force out resurrects when the ability is ready.

Keep note of the situation. If your team is on a save round, it will still be rational if you opt to save your ultimate ability even if it gives your team a slight advantage.

Tips to remember for Resurrects:

  • Try to prioritize teammates who have their ultimate ability ready
  • Resurrecting teammates without a full rifle while fighting against full buys is usually useless (depending on the situation)
  • Keep track of the verticality. Always assume your resurrected teammate will be slightly above head level when resurrected because even Sage’s wall can’t protect them

Sage Tips and Tricks

  • Use Slow Orbs on aggressive peek spots
  • Use Barrier Orb for unique boosts
  • Do not hold the Healing Orb until you know the surroundings are safe
  • Only use Resurrection on winnable rounds

You can also keep track of your teammates’ active abilities so you know which one can bring you more of an advantage in resurrecting.

Sage is a staple in all team compositions and can provide incredible value with just her free Healing orb and her ultimate. Her kit shines the most in maps such as Ascent.