Life of Sage mains: VALORANT players are fed up with being bossed around because of their role

Being the Sage of your VALORANT team can be excruciating, especially in low Elo. No matter how far you’re up the game’s ranked ladder, some players can’t seem to stop micromanaging their team’s ‘healer’—and the community has had it. 

In a Reddit post dated Sept. 3, a player named Intelligent_Row_3931 highlighted how difficult it is for a Sage Main to perform and satisfy her team in Silver lobbies and lower. “I feel like new players jump to duelists and have no idea what it’s like to play Sage,” they said, indicating how unreasonable some players’ requests can be. 

The player continued to rant about what Sage mains face on a daily basis in VALORANT, including sky-high expectations, and it’s honestly sad. Is it that hard to understand Sage’s limitations?

She has a 45 second cooldown on her Healing Orb, a breakable wall that lasts 40 seconds, and her Ressurection is extremely vulnerable in most cases. In spite of that, players continue to expect heroics from their team’s Sage and then blame her if something goes wrong.

“I’ll stop maining Sage because these things make me wanna hate playing my favorite agent,” the player wrote, concluding their rant. Fortunately, the community stood up for them. While most players shared similar experiences and agreed that it’s miserable for Sage mains in low Elo, some comments brought the reality to light.

“Heads up mate: players try to micromanage their Sage all the way up and will try to make you feel like you’re the problem lol,” one player wrote, and it’s the sad truth. 

Despite VALORANT not identifying it as one of its agent classes, a ‘healer’ is a standalone role by itself, created by the player community. But, as much as it sounds right because of their healing abilities, Skye and Sage aren’t just healers. Their kit is knitted to offer defensive (both offensive and defensive in the case of Skye) support to their team. 

You might argue that high Elo players don’t ask for healers, but trust me, I’ve met players in Diamond-Ascendant lobbies fighting for Sage on Ascent because “we need a healer.” 

Unfortunately, micromanagement is an unpleasant trend that persists in all VALORANT ranks, and it’s usually the duelists who embrace such behavior. And it isn’t just for Sage players; controller agents are also subjected to such treatment. But it’s true that Sage gets to experience the bulk of it. I just wonder why.