New Valorant Agent Sage revealed: Abilities, gameplay and lore

Riot Games have revealed the first look at Sage, a previously-unseen Agent that will be in the upcoming first-person shooter game Valorant, showing off her abilities, some gameplay and more.

Valorant is Riot’s first foray into the FPS genre, having spent more than a decade perfecting iconic MOBA League of Legends – arguably the biggest game in the world.

Despite the fact that they don’t have a proven track record in the genre, very few doubt Riot’s ability to make this an incredible game, drawing comparisons to the tactical element in CS:GO and Overwatch’s class-based gameplay to create a game that will satiate the thirst of players from a variety of backgrounds.

Riot Games are slowly revealing each Agent one-by-one, having already shown off the likes of SOVA and Viper, and now they’ve brought us Sage, a Chinese support Agent that keeps herself and her team in as great condition as possible, with some very helpful abilities across the board.

Sage gameplay reveal

Through the last few Agent reveals, Riot have unveiled an array of characters that bring a multitude of abilities and playstyles to Valorant, but Sage seems to be the first clear-cut Healer Agent we’ve seen.

Her tagline might throw some people off though: challenging opponents to “let them try to get through me” almost makes Sage sound like somewhat of a tank-type player, but more likely insinuates that she will defend her team relentlessly, and that’s exactly what you need from your Healer.

It could also reference her Barrier Orb ability – casting a huge barrier across choke points and stopping enemies from getting too close.

Sage’s abilities in Valorant

Each Valorant Agent has four abilities: two Basic, one Signature, and one Ultimate. Sage’s abilities are as follows:

• Slow Orb: Cast out a radianite orb that breaks into a slowing field upon impact with theground. All caught in the field are slowed, grounded, and make noise when moving.
• Barrier Orb: Conjure a large, solid wall. Right-click to rotate the wall before casting.
• Signature Ability – Healing Orb: Heal an ally or yourself to full health over a few seconds.
• Ultimate Ability – Resurrection: Target a friendly corpse. After a short delay, revive them with full health.

The gameplay reveal only shows the Slow Orb and Barrier Orb put to use, including a nifty trick with the Barrier Orb which shows how it can be used more offensively, by casting it under your feet so you can stand atop rather than hide behind it.

The Resurrection ability is guaranteed to be a useful one, and will more often than not be the difference between winning or losing a match – so make sure you use it wisely.

Sage’s lore & personality

There’s not a lot made clear about Sage’s background or personality just from the gameplay reveal. Clearly, she’s an Agent that aims to help her team get the win, and probably won’t often be caught in the middle of the action, but there’s little else to pull apart from it.

She seems similar to Overwatch’s Mercy, if you’re looking for a similar comparison in other games, and her Chinese heritage definitely lends itself to the long history China has of both traditional and alternative medicine – something Riot may touch on when the time comes to speak more on Sage’s background.

Riot Games confirmed that there will be ten Agents available at launch, with five of them needing to be unlocked through what appears to be a progression-based battle pass system.

It’s not yet clear which Agents will be automatically unlocked at launch, but players will no doubt be hoping a strong support agent like Sage is available from the get-go.