Riot Games reveals the details about VALORANT patch 1.14 featuring Barrier Orb change for Sage.
In the early stage of VALORANT, Sage was the must pick Agent in competitive games, because of how impactful her healing, barrier, and revive was back then. However, Riot has already nerfed Sage multiple times targeting almost all of her abilities. And the most brutal one was patch 1.07 nerf where they reduced ally heal to 60 and self-heal to 60 over 10 seconds.
On top of that, Riot had also released a new agent Skye who also has a moderate amount of heal, making Sage more irrelevant. This eventually reflected on the pro games as her pick rate dropped quite significantly just after that patch 1.07 nerf.
However, after two months, Riot Games has officially revealed today that on patch 1.14, they are bringing in some major change/buff to Sage’s Barrier Orb.
“We’ve been happy with how the fortified barrier has been playing but wanted to make some changes to prevent the mitigation of the fortifying counterplay, while rewarding Sage players that successfully fortify their walls,” Riot on patch 1.14 Sage change.
Sage Change Patch 1.14
- Barrier Orb can’t be placed during Buy Phase
- Once fortified, Barrier no longer loses health over time—Barrier only starts to deteriorate a few seconds before it expires
This might not be some meta defining changes but making her Barrier to not lose health over time can bring some meaningful impact in the game.