
Originally Posted by
Assassinine
Mute is a very potent counter to smoke bomb, if you get smoked through your mute you are using it improperly. You have to realize mute has not only a physical effect, but a psychological effect. Just as you do not wish for your opponent to kill you, your opponent does not wish for you to stun him. If you get smoked through mute, it is not solely a product of lag, but of the reaction the pursuer has when expecting you to use mute. In every scenario where smoke bomb beats mute, the pursuer did not think: "hey, he just used mute, i better smoke bomb him before it activates." Rather, the opponent thinks: "uh oh, my target is running at me, he is probably planning to use an ability, i better drop a smoke before he gets the chance." Scenarios like this are an example of Yomi, your opponent has seen this behaviour before, predicts your course of action, and acts accordingly. Every time smoke bomb beats mute, the pursuer had already decided to use smoke, regardless of if you had hit mute yet. To counter this, you ascend to the next layer of Yomi, you have seen this OSB strategy before, you know what the pursuer is planning to do, so take a course of action that will cause smoke to not affect you. Pretend to rush your opponent and juke back. This puts your opponent into a disadvantageous situation, because it is impossible to react to a mute with smoke bomb, it is only possible to drop it pre-emptively. The pursuer is left with 3 options: 1. drop smoke bomb for fear of getting muted, 2. Predict the juke and hit the kill ****on hoping they get in range, or 3. intercept the rush, take a discreet and move on to the next target. If the opponent takes option 1 you are left in a very advantageous position where you are very likely to get an easy stun with the mute you still have ready. If they choose option 2. you are reset to neutral, where you can attempt more jukes, do a real mute stun, or just casually walk in the direction of your target while THEIR pursuer closes the distance. If they choose option 3, you take your 100p honorable, and your +1 loss towards boost/2x, and move on. If you are particularly sneaky, you can pull off an ability stun as they go for the quick and easy kill (similar to the drive-by-smoke stun of ACB). If used well, mute is one of the best counters to smoke bomb. Knives can be substituted for mute, with an added bonus, you can knife the player and pretend to walk up for a stun. The pursuer may panic and drop a smoke, if they are not crafted for range it is possible to naked stun them from the edge of the smoke if they walk towards you. If they stall with smoke you can simply walk away, without the smoke it is much more difficult for them to get an uncontested kill on you, let alone a poison. Alternatively you can bait a smoke and punish with knives for a free stun. Knives, when crafted and perked for lower cooldown, has a downtime of roughly 30 seconds. By the time you need them again they will be ready. The best part of juking a smoke bomb is not only does it cost nothing to do, you dont even need defensive abilities. Just the possibility that you might use an ability to stun is enough to get someone to drop a smoke. Just by juking, you are given information about the player at no cost. Someone who doesnt drop smoke when threatened is either a newer player, lacks smoke, or is a strong player that predicted your juke. Someone who DOES drop smoke when threatened is quite possibly a skittish player who can be exploited for free stuns for the rest of the match. By getting into your opponents head you get both physical and psychological advantages to be used for the rest of the match