The Smoker

The Smoker is an Infected with a long, whip-like tongue that can drag Survivors away from their team-mates and use its tongue as an organic noose to strangle Survivors when it is perched above them. Similar to Half-Life's Barnacle, or Resident Evil's Licker. When killed, it leaves a haze of black smoke, distorting the Survivors' vision and disabling character speech. Like most other boss infected, a melee hit from the Smoker does about twice as much damage as the Horde.

Tactics
Identified by its hacking and coughing, the Smoker is one of the most deadly if the Survivors are being attacked by the Tank or the Horde. The problem is that the Smoker is generally further away than a Hunter would be. Interestingly, your character cannot talk in smoke, only cough, choke, and hack (NOTE: voice chat and typing are not inhibited).

Survivors

General strategy:
 * Always have at least one buddy close at hand
 * Listen for the distinctive hacking sound the smoker makes

Upon seeing a smoker:
 * If far away: open fire
 * If close: quickly do a melee attack. This is important because if you get tongued at very close range, you may not get any window of opportunity for shooting at all

During strangulation:
 * You have an approximately one second window of opportunity after getting noosed by the smoker's tongue
 * Aim at the smoker and shoot for all your worth (NOTE: one head-shot will kill a smoker)
 * If you can't see the smoker, shoot the tongue instead. Don't neglect to kill the smoker afterward. It does take a while for the smoker to "rewind" that tongue for another attack, but it will happen. At the very minimum, warn fellow survivors that the smoker is still an active threat

Helping a noosed survivor:
 * Use a melee attack. You can melee three things to instantly free them and avoid nasty friendly-fire incidents:
 * The survivor themselves
 * The tongue (at any point along its length)
 * The smoker
 * Shoot
 * Target the smoker (the tongue should lead you right to it)
 * If you can't see the smoker then target the tongue instead
 * If you can't see the smoker nor the tongue then shoot the smoker through the wall or ceiling (i.e.: judge the position of the smoker relative to the survivor getting clawed by the smoker)

Infected

If you're playing as a Smoker, a common yet useful tactic is to always have the advantage of higher ground. Choking a Survivor from above is far more effective than dragging a Survivor straight to you. Being higher makes it harder to see and kill you, giving you the advantage.

The key point to the Smoker is to be patient and wait until the survivors are distracted by the horde or other distractions.

▲The Smoker also works well with the Hunter. A good, common scenario to show this is lets say the four survivors have split up into teams of two. A Hunter and a Smoker can easily team up to kill the two survivors by having a Smoker grab the first survivor and a Hunter to pounce on the second one immediately afterward.

▲The Smoker is the Tank's best friend. Make sure if you're a Smoker during a Tank battle to stay a good distance away and pull a survivor away from the Tank. This takes pressure off of the player, and during the confusion you may even be able to kill the survivor while the Tank takes care of the rest of the survivors.

▲If one survivor has been vomited on by the boomer, launch your tongue to pin them down while the horde take their pickings. If things go well you will slowly drag the survivor towards you while they are ripped apart.

▲Alternatively, if a boomer has vomited on the three other survivors, you can take the opportunity to grab the fourth. While the other three are covered in bile, they cannot see aura signals of their allies. This combined with the fact that they will be having to fight of a horde, means there can often be a long period of uninterrupted constriction.

▲If the survivors are near a large vertical drop, take advantage of this by pulling them over the edge.

Survivors
Tongue Twister Kill a Smoker who has grabbed you with his tongue.

Drag and Drop Rescue a Survivor from a Smoker's tongue before he takes damage.

No Smoking Section Kill 10 Smokers as they are pulling helpless Survivors.

Infected
Chain Smoker Constrict two Survivors on one life as a Smoker.

Big Drag Drag a Survivor 100 feet with your tongue.

Specific Tactics