and then duelists
you dont know anything about the game at pro level if you think viper or harbor players just already know all the timings of their util lmfaoooooooo. viper is literally a lurk role with timings changing depending on the round. timings for every agent change depending on the round? pro harbors regularly fuck up their walls. never said anything about duelists being easier to play so idk who youre talking to.
here my thinking: Smoke roles i think is the hardest to play, but the easiest to master. most smokes player in the world often are the igl of the team (pro play anyway). Fragging with a smoke agent is tough, if your game has a top-frag omen, you are most likely losing. However, in team-play, it's a lot easier to play because of timings, comms, placement of smokes have been practiced tons of times
I'm surprised by how many people here are arguing that duelist is way harder. 9 times out of 10 you only have to worry about using your own utility, movement, etc. Meanwhile on smokes you've got to be providing cover for like half the team, and if you don't also win out duels when they come to you, you'll get endlessly shit on. example: FNS
in pro play, no. unless you're igl-ing, you just do what your igl tells you to do with the occasional improvisation (say a clutch round)
in ranked, possibly. if pro play is 75% set play and 25% improv, ranked is 25% set play and 75% improv. at that point you're depended upon to throw your util to parts of the map you're not in (especially if you play someone like astra), so you end up having little util for yourself to survive. not to mention having to read the map and your opponent if your team isn't comming any noise or util from the other team.
i agree with what CorpL said in #9 -- smokes is the hardest to play the lower in rank you go, but as you go further up the ranks and start looking at team play and true mastery, it gets easier
smoke orb agents have a relatively low skill floor, having a player flex onto omen or something for a few maps isn't the end of the world, and brim is legit easy to play, just press on your little ipad and learn some molly lineups and ur good
wall smoke agents are a lot harder just because of how their utility works, viper players need to know more lineups and learn how to play around their utility timings, while harbor walls are super hard to effectively set up without leaving tiny gaps ppl could be in.