Valorant: Riot may have over nerfed Sage, as she had a 0% pick rate in the Renegades x NSG Invitational

Sage facing a 0% pick rate in any Valorant tournament was unthinkable a month ago. The Agent had one of the highest pick rates across most of the Ignition Series tournaments, and currently getting 0 picks during the Renegades x Nerd Street Gaming Invitational feels pretty unnatural.

In a recent consensus by vlr.gg, we see that in the latest North American Valorant tournament, the Renegades x NSG Invitational, Sage did not get any playtime.

Screen grab from vlr.gg

Surely, one might argue that Sentinels, TSM, and Team Envy weren't playing in this tournament, which may have affected her pick rate. But, we feel that even if they did, the outcome would not have been too different.

Sage’s pick rate has remained one of the lowest, and it’s unfortunate that now even Viper is favored more than her.

It’s true Sage was one of the most broken Agents in Valorant. With her heals, Slow Orbs, and Barrier Orbs, she was a must pick in every game, as her kit just made her outright annoying to play against.

She was incredible during defense, and her abilities acted as a big ‘nope button’ for even the most aggressive and ingenious of enemy advances.

Riot may have over nerfed Valorant’s Sage

Well, if you keep nerfing an Agent throughout patches, then you are bound to over nerf her at some point.

And, it would seem that the Valorant patch 1.07 update was the final nerf that broke the healer’s back.

Sage received the following updates to her kit in 1.07:

Heal

• Heal reduced from 100 over five seconds to 60 over five seconds.
• Self heal reduced from 100 over five seconds to 60 over 10 seconds.

Slow Orb

• Size reduced by 30 percent.

Barrier Orb

• Cost reduced from 400 to 300.
• Fortifying Barrier: Wall forms at 400 HP. After a three-second delay, the wall becomes fortified to 800 HP.

In a previous discussion, we spoke about how Valorant maps aren't favoring the defending teams as much as it used to before Act 3. And, Sage’s nerfs play a huge part in this tonal shift on how the Valorant matches are being played out today.

Reduced power in her walls and slows means that Sage doesn’t get to have priority over mid in maps like Split and Ascent, and this, in turn, started favoring comps that boasted the Breach, Raze, and Jett triangle.

Duelists are getting higher preferences among teams now, and an aggressive playstyle will soon become the meta in competitive Valorant.