- Valorant players, for the longest time, have wanted Sage's kit to include a self-revive ability since she was introduced.
- The self-revive ability is finally in Valorant with Clove where they become immune for a short time and need a kill or an assist to stay revived permanently.
- Earlier, Sage had a self-resurrection voice line that would only trigger in custom games, pointing at plans that might give her a self revive but it didn't come to fruition.
Self-revive is a concept familiar to players of battle royale shooters. Be it Call of Duty: Warzone or Apex Legends, the ability to self-revive lets you rejoin the mortal beings and take revenge for your untimely demise. Unlike battle royale games, tactical shooters usually do not include a self-revive ability for some valid reasons. However, that seems to be changing with the addition of Clove, the 25th agent in Valorant.
If you go through our Clove abilities guide, you will learn that their ultimate, called Not Dead Yet, lets them self-revive for a temporary period. You make the revival permanent if you score a kill or assist within a stipulated time.
Currently, the only agent who can perform a revive in-game is Sage but is limited to bringing back other agents from the afterlife. Although Sage revives her teammate permanently, it always comes off as a supporting ability. It reminds me of the old Lifeline in Apex Legends who could revive her teammates with DOC. With the new perk system in Apex Legends, Lifeline received an upgrade (a major buff) that allows her to self-revive.
Shouldn’t Sage Get a Self-Revive Too?
This makes me think, shouldn’t Sage get the self-revive ability? While it may sound impractical to revive yourself as Sage in certain scenarios, having the option wouldn’t harm you. The community has been requesting Riot developers to implement self-revive on Sage’s ultimate for a long time.
Sage even had a custom voice line for self resurrect but it never came to fruition. Earlier, you could self-revive as Sage in custom games in the ghost mode to trigger the voice line. Unfortunately, this has since been removed. It seems there were plans for a self-revive ability for Sage at some certain point in time. But Riot seemingly decided to forgo it in favor of the development of other agents or hold it for an agent like Clove.
Self-Revive on Clove Fits Their Playstyle
Maybe Valorant devs were listening to the feedback and wanted to bring the self-revive ability with their new agent as opposed to buffing Sage beyond her current capabilities. That’s why we now see Clove arrive with the self-revive ultimate, which fits into Valorant’s playstyle.
After using self-revival, Clove stays immune for a certain duration. On the other hand, when Sage revives a teammate, no immunity effect is applied to them. This leads to a tough situation for the revived teammate. So, Sage reviving herself in 1-on-1 situations would’ve been quite risky.
Sage already received a massive nerf with her self-healing ability where she heals herself less than what she does to allies. At this point, I feel Sage will be completely forgotten in the books of team composition, especially in the competitive scene, unless the devs buff her or revamp her kit.
The self-revive sounds like a great addition on Clove even from a trading kills POV. Dan Hardison, Agent Gameplay Designer at Riot Games said,
Sometimes it’s correct for Clove to run in and die as long as they’re traded by an ally – 1 for 1s are advantageous for them if their life is traded for a non-Clove opponent! You have to be willing to die for the squad to play Clove.
This brings me to what Clove’s self-revive offers in the current meta. If the devs did not consider a self-revive earlier, it means the recent retake-heavy meta made them think about the possibility of finally adding this ability. However, if we were to speculate, it is possible that Sage did not get self-revive because her kit is that of a team healer, and sees her play on the back foot. Being aggressive does not fall in her playbook.
But the issue is with how Sage has been completely ignored in recent updates. Despite being one of the starter agents in the game, Sage never got a proper limelight. Yeah, you can do some fancy wall plays. But, from a competitive standpoint, it seems developers no longer wish to focus on their old agents, especially Sage.
I feel Valorant added the self-revive mechanic because of the shift of tides in the gameplay meta. With more controllers having a bigger responsibility in clutches or retakes, an agent needs to be upfront and willing to sacrifice. So, even if Clove dies after self-revive, they are still useful to the team with their after-death utilities.
What do you think about Clove getting a self-revive and not Sage? Will the self-revive ability be broken, like Wingman, for ranked or competitive games? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
