I swear that Sage mains have the most polarized view of buffs and nerfs. Sage used to be the most desirable agent, but then Riot reasonably and understandably nerfed her, and the Sage mains cried out in agony. The Sage mains were of course blinded by the meta and don’t know what a useless agent is actually like (trust me, I’m a Viper main). Sage is still very strong and easy to use.

Healing orb: With the power of radianite, strength of will, and two Flintstone gummy vitamins, Sage can heal anybody on her team from any distance. As long as there is line of sight, you can count on Sage to ignore you and heal the Phoenix who is already healing himself. The healing orb used to heal for 100, but it only heals for 60 now. People think that’s a huge nerf, but think of it like this: You get shot 3 times in the chest by a Vandal and have 30 hp. What is the difference between being healed to 100 hp and 90 hp? Not much at all. It will still take the main rifles 3 body shots to kill you. It’s still a good heal.

Slow orb: This sticky, sparkly, slimy, sluggish ball of gunk is the perfect stalling tool. Once a carpet of crystal is in your way, you have to wait for it to disappear before pushing forward. It only costs 100 credits and Sage gets two of them as well. You can also combo slow orbs with a teammate’s damaging ability, but team coordination isn’t a real thing.

Barrier orb: A surprisingly versatile ability, the barrier orb creates a crystal wall that instantly stops any enemy in their tracks. . . unless they can fly. . . or teleport. . . or blast jump. But everyone else is stuck. Don’t feel like keeping out the bad guys? That’s ok, the barrier orb can also be used for creative architecture. A well-placed wall can boost you and/or your teammates to strange and unique elevations that shouldn’t exist in order to surprise the enemy.

Resurrection: Sage has the power to revive any of her fallen comrades and not have it be super broken and mercy-lessly disrupt the game flow. With a dependable Sage, you can get a second chance at life. Of course, with an undependable Sage, you may never see anyone get revived, or worse, you could be revived as bait in front of the entire enemy tram because the Sage saw it in a cool YouTube clip once.

Moral of the story: Sage is strong because she can piss off both teams.