[2021] Sage and Skye Heal

With the introduction of Reyna and Skye, and the nerfs to Sage's heal in patch 1.07, it seems as if Sage's label as the "healer" is a bit of a reach at this point.

Ignoring Reyna and Phoenix because their heals are strictly self-healing (but honestly, who in the world is complaining about Phoenix's heals), between Sage and Skye, I think it is somewhat hands down that Skye's heal is not only better, but that type of heal is a bit more aligned with someone who is called a "healer".

This is not to say that an agent with Sage's heal ability is "not a healer", but just that Skye's heal ability is much more team-oriented, especially considering the heal is not a self-heal. Sage's heal ability, on the other hand, is single target and can also be cast on self, and it just makes more sense on Skye, someone who is not necessarily labeled a "healer" the same way as Sage is (some of the other agents' voice lines clearly implies Sage is THE "healer").

Would it be so outrageous if Riot were to swap the two agents' heal abilities? Does it make sense to do so? not only for thematic or conceptual reasons, but gameplaywise as well? I personally think it makes sense to do so (obviously, why else would I be posting this? zz). Curious about everyone else's thoughts on Skye's and Sage's heal, and maybe even about the possibility of Riot actually swapping their heals.

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Originally posted by mrluzfan

That's actually intentional, because they don't see her as a healer, and she's not labeled as a healer. She's a Sentinel, and her primary role is to stop & slow pushes, which she does an incredible job at. The healing is a nice bonus, but honestly, I never thought her heal was that important to her kit. Its the wall, slow orbs, and resurrection that really define her imo, and with just those abilities, she's already super strong. Think about this: she's the only character in the game that can place a barrier down or slow movement, literally no other character can do that. And yet people, at least in Beta, just chose her because she was a heal bot and healing is always good.

I actually like the fact that they nerfed her heal, because that helped to reinforce the fact that's she not a healer or a support, she's a Sentinel.

You hit a lot of points right on the head, great insight. Skye cannot heal herself, but instead actually has a much higher healing-per-round potential than Sage because she's an Initiator, who's meant to play with her teammates and help them break open areas. She's very supportive in that way and has less personal agency to capitalize off of her utility on her own, but has more team-wide utility and healing potential as a result.

Sage, on the other hand, has supportive capabilities with her heal and rez, but is also very self-sufficient at locking down sites on her own with her slow orbs and wall - she doesn't need allies to extract value from those abilities. She's also allowed to self-heal whereas Skye isn't, in part because she's a sentinel and is empowered to be more self-sufficient in order to lock down and control areas.

Healing is an output that both of these agents provide to a team, just like trade denial is an output that both Jett and Reyna provide to a team, or corner flushing is an output that both Raze and Sova provide to their teams. However, healing doesn't define their identities, it's just an output that should fit into their respective roles (Sentinel and Initiator).

None of this is to say that every Initiator with a heal will always have higher healing potential than any Sentinel with a heal, or anything else - nothing is set in stone. We just think of healing as an output, like anything else in our game (smokes, flashes, dashes, etc.) and it's all about finding the right tuning and variables that make each agent's version of healing work for their kit goals and role within a team composition.

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