Was Sage nerfed to make space for an upcoming healer?

We were all surprised with how strong Riot Games nerfed Sage in the latest VALORANT patch, with some people deeming her unplayable in the current meta if her healing doesn’t warrant shuffling around compositions to bring her in. She had already been dropping in and out of several of the top teams’ agent compositions, including the likes of Cloud9 and TSM. However, what if this nerf was to make space for an extra healer in VALORANT for players to enjoy, considering Sage is the only agent with purely healing and resurrection abilities?

VALORANT Character Design Lead, Ryan “Morello” Scott, has already teased the character before during one of his streams. He discussed the agent’s abilities very briefly and how they will act, and they are extremely similar to VALORANT’s Sage and Overwatch’s Mercy for example. We are still yet to hear any more information on the upcoming agent, but the recent nerfs to Sage might be preparing the title for what is to come next.

It is always satisfactory to have strong supporting characters who are able to revive or give fraggers another go at the enemy. The existence of only one in VALORANT is relatively unhealthy for the meta, especially when it was just severely nerfed and doesn’t always fit in teams’ play-style.

The studio already revealed their plans to release six agents per year, with each one releasing at the beginning of a new act every two months. We already received Reyna and Killjoy, who definitely shook up the meta when they were dropped. The latter is exactly what Riot Games want every new VALORANT agent release to do.

Considering the release date of Killjoy, at the end of July, we can assume the new agent coming to the game will be introduced at the end of September or at the beginning of November. Do you think the upcoming agent will be more support-oriented? Let us know what you think in the comments below!