milskidasith said:
Except for dragging people into awkward positions, the hunter always outclasses the smoker. Even in places with many areas where you could drag a survivor from on a roof or down from where he is, it's always a tradeoff between damage and safety. I've seen smokers used to great effect, but I've never really thought "Damn, if only we had a smoker" or thought "that smoker is unquestionably the reason why we won, and it would have been worse with a hunter"
The tradeoff between the two is distance. While the hunter can pounce and fuck things up, he has to get up close, which makes him vulnerable, especially since melee is the bane of the hunter, and practically useless when the group is together - so many times have people just shot a hunter on someone while they were downed, but can't get a smoker because he's too far off. Smokers will pull them apart which will cause the group to run back or something, boomers will cause chaos and blind the other half of the group, then the hunters go in for the kill. Smoker was the spark that lit the fire!
That's just a scenario I had and it's a winning combo most of the time - outclassed or not, smokers are vital - and blood harvest is smoker heaven because of all the elevated positions and how easy it is to pull people out of the house in the finale, and heaven for the other 2 because of all the hiding spots.
I do think the hunter is better than the smoker in general, but I've definitely had those 2 thoughts you quoted come to my mind very often. I've also thought "That smoker is why we LOST" too.