No problem. Let's go ahead and set the stage for the definitions of each from Riot.
Definitions from Riot for Sentinel and Controller:
- Sentinels are defensive experts who can lock down areas and watch flanks, both on attacker and defender rounds.
- Controllers are experts in slicing up dangerous territory to set their team up for success.
I think where a lot of people get caught up is when what you see is the only way you can play an agent. One of the unfortunate things about the educational community in Valorant is that they are linear. I think people believe that pro players are just players with a longer list of rules than them. That's simply not even close.
There is literally so much space for creativity that we miss this and shun people who think differently. Some of the most interesting esports experiences have been creativity driven. I'm not sure if you know about Brax but he's from Counter-Strike and is known for throwing his pistol up and pretending its a flash. I don't think you could find a single pro at the time who would think that was a good idea. Same thing with Stewie2k, I don't think you could find a single person who was throwing flashes throw smokes like he did. These are expressions of creativity and not rules.
And while there is a lot of value in learning the basics, you shouldn't let that be the end all of your journey. The truth of the matter is that once you get to the pro level, you punish people based on rules you think they follow. Sometimes plays look absolutely dumb but they work because the opponent literally thinks you would never do something like that, because it's so dumb.
All this to say that Sage being a Sentinel is murky by design. It is an expression of creativity from the Riot devs on the concept of a Sentinel. We saw the same sort of rejection of Deadlock. When Deadlock first came out the whole scene decided she was bad because her Sonic Sensor didn't act like a Cypher trip. That's the whole point. Developers do not want to copy and paste the same designs over and over. Sometimes they overdo it and need to tone it back but in general, I don't think people want Cypher coming out 100 times as a new agent when there is simply nothing new about it.
The reasons I would consider Sage a Sentinel are her wall denies space and vision. She can control space with her slow ability. I think those are the two things that make her primarily a Sentinel. Her Resurrection and Heal are more selling points for a certain type of playstyle. A playstyle for playing passive.
For me, controllers offer a gamble and don't lock anything down. Pick any agent and their abilities offer you the chance to attack or defend an area but at a price. Those price points are vulnerability and damage. Outside of Astra's slow, most controllers are there to make it risky for you to attack. I know this seems similar but controllers don't focus on attacking your movement, they focus on attacking your health pool.
But I think at the end of the day, the beautiful part is, you can choose to play any agent the way you want. I think that the base of this game is essentially Counter-Strike and the agent is just a flavoring or an enhancement on top.
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