Smoke grenades aren’t consistent enough to take over the other two blitz options. One simple solution should be making rejects immune to ranged attacks while in a smoke. The other issue is they don’t do anything against large groups of melee enemies. They should also increase the dodge duration while inside of smoke. This would solve both issues the smoke grenade has.
Smoke grenades are meta in China because they are so powerful if used by someone who understands them 
I thought it already does that. Seems like I’m wrong. Just checked in the meat grinder the ranged enemies just don’t shoot you when you are in the smoke or their line of sight is blocked by the smoke. So kind of the same thing 
Think the confusing part is where the edges are. I use the clear smoke mod
Half obstructed
Fully obstructed
It does seem like if they touch the smoke they can shoot you. So throwing the smoke on them is useless. Also activation of the smoke does do a light stagger. But it’s kinda useless. Maybe as a buff against bruisers it should lower enemy attack speed inside it. Or funnier they can accidently target each other.
Try using the increased aoe, and throwing them closer to where you are standing. They’re one of the best defensive options in the game already. Those two things would make them must take on every single build, especially given the crusher rework.
If used correctly, it breaks the game really , with 3 downsides:
- Smoke itself interacts with every light source possible. Basically flashbangs me every time some one uses flamers/staffs or gunfire. I wish it didn’t
- Makes it hard to see for everyone else what’s going on, on top of all the effects cluter we have now
- When you have smokes on the team, usually means there is less cleave obviously, so someone has to pick up the slack.
But overall, it’s VERY strong on certain maps and when used correctly.
Throwing smoke at elite gunners will make them shoot at the position they last saw you at.
Throwing smoke at yourself/team will make most shooters stop and reposition.
Dogs cannot target players in smoke. They will circle the perimeter instead.
Trappers and Flamers need to be closer to shoot.
this imo always the best usage of it, also because they will have to push themselves into the smoke which is very useful with ranged units. and trappers will not be able to shoot their net and will have to come very close first as well.
i think throwing to ranged units is kind of a noob trap because they can still damage you even if missing you and in havoc takes few bullets just to obliterate your toughness
Yeah only real downside is the insanely long delay when underhand throwing. This should be halved imo.