Further Sage nerfs confirmed with Valorant devs admitting agent is "out of control"

Since the launch of the game, the cries of "someone pick Sage" in the agent selection scene has become somewhat of a meme - with the agent, with its ability to heal, resurrect and put up, at first, impregnable walls, making her vastly more powerful than other agents.

These abilities have made her a must-pick, with the healer currently being the most selected agent according to Blitz.gg. She sits in first place from Bronze 1 to Immortal 2, with her dropping into the top 3 up to Radianite proving that no matter the level you are likely to see a Sage in-game.

(Picture: Riot Games)

Already the focus of two nerfs, reducing the strength of her walls, and the effectiveness of her slow orbs has done little to dent that number, and Riot to believe the nerf's haven't gone far enough describing the healer as "out of control".

"Sage needs pretty big work," admitted Ryan "Morello" Scott, Valorant's lead character designer. "Sage still is really out of control, and we don’t think it’s the healing.”

That last comment clearly means that the issues, in Riot's eyes, are not her healing abilities but the slow orb and most crucially the barrier.

Morello would further elaborate on the difficulties of nerfing agents, explaining that if you go too far it just creates a whole new set of problems.

"I think we’re going to have to get a little creative too. There’s some point where you just neuter her to where she’s not fun to play at all, and she’s already a character that can risk being too flat, so we might have to be really creative about what we have to do to reach that result," said Morello. Adding, "we might have to be really extreme on how we have to hit her, we might have to be much more extreme than what we originally thought."

Morello didn't lay out any definitive plans for the nerf but did admit that Riot was looking to make the changes to Sage as soon as possible meaning we could see a very different sage come patch v1.04 which is due for release on 21st July.