Smoke grenades are garbage, we all know this.
My suggestion? Replace them with a mine.
Enough damage to kill a crusher, enough radius to make tossing it not viable as a grenade replacement, and self-damage.
Make it not break stealth to emplace and suddenly stealth vet has an identity as a ‘scout’ class that can lure enemies into traps.
Replace it with rock, or an ice cube, or a butterstarch hard candy and it will be better than smokes.
I’m forever a smoke apologist (especially this update with so many complaining about gunners and smokes completely invalidating their existence), but I will admit of the many described changes to it people ask for, I do like/would concede to the idea of it being changed out for mines.
Smoke being in the infiltrate column doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense, I’d say change it with Krak more than likely (given any build I use with smoke always couples it with Shout, since Shout is so op and makes up for the fact you ‘don’t have a grenade’ by just knocking everything out of your smoke, making it have to re-engage/target you which gives you plenty of time to melee it to death. That and Krak just begs for grenadier which then flows easily into Invis). But I know that would cause a massive uproar (and honestly I also wouldn’t really like it) since the ‘straight down the middle’ Veteran line would get beyond f’d by such a change, and smoke does kinda need that 10% melee damage pip to be it’s ‘viable in the right set up’ self, and moving THAT over too would feel kinda out of place.
So, with ALL that in mind, I’d be more than ok replacing it with a mine at this point. Even with me enjoying smoke in the small cases I do so, they have become smaller and smaller cases, as primarily builds centered around smacking things with the powersword or one specific build with a bolt gun and a shovel (and even then it’s in that one mainly as an excuse to grab the melee pip). At this point, more often than not I find myself wanting to proc Reciprocity, which then results in me picking a different option as the ‘easy gun shot dodges’ are better to have than to omit, and it’s only a rarefied few ‘raw damage’ builds that even take advantage of the smoke in the first place. Meanwhile, a mine could be used in any case, properly synergizes with the column it’s placed in, while also still fitting the ‘tactical veteran’ fantasy the smoke is trying to encourage.
You’d be able to ‘lay traps’ for your enemies to fall into, add the capability of using it with infiltrate to give that even more of a boon and make that more easy to click on, and generally quiet the community about ‘how terrible smoke is’. I could even see the two nads being combined, as smoke would suddenly serve a purpose in that regard. Either on explosion of the mine or on placement of it, a smoke cloud would appear in that location alla the currently existing smoke grenade, and function the same way as the 15 second smoke does now. Maybe even make it that much more translucent, like ‘kicked up dust and debris’ sort of feeling, that gives the ranged protection for it’s duration while also drawing enemies in. Then you can either place another mine for the enemies to walk into, or in the case of it happening ‘on cast’ draw the enemies into it in the first place, either way playing into the melee playstyle still while also getting a nice big impactful boom that makes you and the rest of the team happy that you actually took something out with your blitz, along with gaining the tactical improvement.
Can imagine running in with invis, slapping down a few mines, the wave running into them and debris and rocks getting kicked up as they are detonated. The Veteran popping out of invis amidst the chaos, quickly meleeing and dispatching anything that remains as it all gets heavily suppressed and confused at what the heck is even going on. Before the team runs up into the malestrom to take advantage of the momentary distraction and confusion the veteran provided.
I like the thought of this, this feels right to me.
Agree completely. Smokes should be a pick-up for the 4th slot that all classes could use.
No!
The smoke is released on the Vet’s location when they activate Infiltrate, accompanied by the shout, “Smoke bomb!”
Replace it with an electric stun grenade…
If Fatshark cannot exploit all the discussions here around smoke grenades to fix them, then they should replace them.
Could add some toughness regen and TDR to cloud effects or damage boosts against enemies in cloud
My suggestion in the past was some corrosive slow brittle effect gas/smoke, I dislike the idea of mines unless you can toss them the same or half the distance of a grenade.
I dont mine-d the idea 
, but I would love to see the smoke just be better.
Maybe we could just see through it, maybe it could stun enemies, corrode armour, be larger… idk, just better.
Otherwise, anything would be better as you say.
You get to blind your team!
And you get to blind your team!
EVERYBODY GETS TO BLINDS THEIR TEEEAAAM!
No thanks, unless smokes are 90% transparent.
Smoke is tough since it’s replacing a krak/damage. The LoS to break gunners is good and I guess you can see through smoke if you pair with the highlight ability.
I would prefer to just add a smoke animation for the classes that go invisible, at least this will help my suspension of disbelief.
I think a flashbang would be better suited for the role Smoke Grenades are trying to fill. When it detonates, any ranged enemy in the (huge) radius gets instantly suppressed, including Snipers, and runs for cover - enough to buy your team several seconds.
Could have it work on Groaners and Poxwalkers, too, as a weaker interrupt than standard frags.
Grenade Tinkerer upgrade would stun all enemies caught in radius for 1.5 seconds. The suppression will take place after the stun ends.
Penances:
Breach and Clear: Suppress 1000 enemies with flashbangs.
Blinding Truth: Suppress a Sniper who is about to fire with a flashbang.
Yeah but that seems like lots of investment to get some use out of smoke. Im sure some people use it really well, it just seems super niche.
If we could at least see through it quite well that would make it useful without any other investment. I know that kinda breaks suspension of belief but I literally see no-one with smoke except new lower level players. I suspect they stop using it not long after.
The only time Iv seen it used well was my friend, the beast, who LOVES niche builds that nobody likes. He is determined to use things people hate and he actually succeeds most of the time. It worked ok when he threw then ON to the gunner groups but even he stopped using them.
It just seems like a waste when your grenade should be something good that people want to use and have pros that make them a worthwhile option.
Again, Im sure 1 in 1000 people use them well. So like… 5 people? 
Yea, Agree.
I would change the smoke grenade to just trigger on ability activation that hides the player, kind of like bardins ranger ability, instead of taking a slot for a grenade.
A mine would be weird because unless you make the explosion the size of a ogryn’s frag bomb how would it be better then a krak grenade or frag grenade? And at that point maybe a demolition charge would be better? You plant it and then can detonate it at will by pressing the grenade button again.
I personally say a flashbang for veteran, basically same effect as the last pulls of chorus. Knockback and stun enemies in small radius, blind and suppress enemies in very large radius. Basically just something to stop every enemy in a entire area shooting for a few seconds, maybe help break up a hoard as well.
Also since we are on the topic of kind a useless stun grenades. Replacing the zealot’s stun storm with a shock grenade (kind a ties into the “enforcer” theme), same stun effect but does consistent damage and applies brittleness or slow or something. Just needs a buff since the blades of faith path is ridiculously stacked.
Stunbombs are fine, it’s the nodes on the top right of the tree that are the issue. There needs to be a reshuffle or rebalance of Zealot’s nodes, not a random buff to stunbombs.
I would still like to see a recreation on one of my favourite veteran equipment choices from 5th ed tabletop: the satchel charge that explodes with the power of a demolisher round, but you can’t throw it further than its blast radius.
I wonder if a flashbang, for want of a better word, would also be an idea that could work?
Differently from Cobalts idea, you don’t “throw” it; you just use it. Everyone in your aura radius goes cloaked for 5 seconds. Obviously if you took the aura radius extension node then you get extra lee-way.
Doesn’t work on bosses or DH. Obvs.
This too.
Like a ninja