its not like the devs intentionally make smoky's shots whether it will hit or not determined by random factors. All of my 1100 hours on smoky were after the projectile update and I can say that smoky with non-hovering hulls is much more controllable since you can control the downward and upward degree of the tank to control your shots direction unlike hovering hulls where you basically just hovering around without any noticeable upward or downward movement. Just like isida being easy to control and use with paladin or crus but a lot harder to control using wasp, it is easier to notice the difference if you use Sustainable Nanobots augment to compare. The tank's volume as a factor plays a part in determining how hard is it to hit the target, so the easiest tank to hit is dictator and the hardest ones are paladin, crus and hopper since they are too thin compared to other tanks. You saying this proves that hitting shots using smoky is about skill rather than luck or randomness, since phone has aim assist. So as long as skill is the deciding factor of hitting shots using smoky I have no problem with it.

Agreed, in the end even if there is no mistake by me I will miss regardless because striker tandem augment's impact force will make me miss shots and that is totally fair since that is how a competitive online game with many unique combos should be, there is no perfect combo each and every combo must have some flaws in some areas and situations. players are mistaken for thinking these disadvantages should be removed by buffing turrets or making OP augments that remove these disadvantages. For me I see augments as a way to add different mechanisms and playstyle to a turret despite how effective they are and that is the case for smoky's augments. Maybe a healing smoky augment could be an interesting idea.

As an experienced smoky player I think smoky is balanced and the effectiveness of it fully depends on the player's skill and playstyle which is fair. So if you missed a shot with smoky rather than saying its the turret's problem you could say that the turret has no auto-aim like thunder and railgun and require unique projectile mechanism that require certain angles to hit the target. For example, if you are moving fast and trying to shoot a non-moving tank your shot will go up and it wont hit the target even though you were aiming at it. So the trick here is to slightly brake before shooting so the pattern while you are moving (pressing W) is like this: S shoot S shoot S shoot, therefore you are controlling where the projectile will go and I'm talking about normal hulls ofc. Its not about smoky being weak its about other turrets/augments being OP. Personally I don't want the devs to buff smoky, I feel it will lose its identity, since smoky is known as a weak turret to use, I find it fun dominating battles by using it, because it is more challenging to win using smoky against the variety of OP turrets/augments.