What does the assassin's smoke bomb ability actually do?

It just seems to make a very small puff of smoke and then do... absolutely nothing...

Any tips?

It Blinds your opponents, Stun Bots and if you Smokebomb then Jump you can launch yourself high up for a quick Escape or if you need to get up to a ledge when there is no pads around.

Nothing is wrong

I've used it far more than I've been hit by it, but basically:

Bots and turrets are disabled for a short time.

Players are supposedly blinded.

Press jump immediately after the animation ends, and you will do a super ninja jump. Combine with cloaking and air control and you're guranteed to escape spray-n-pray fire, thus keeping your cloak intact and your location unknown.

The best use is for the super jump, gives you an awesome extra mobility option

On Grenade III arena, you can super jump from the middle platform up into the enemy base (where snipers like to sit)

i love when they smoke me, i can just tap b, and watch the flash clear while i crush that moron's face in with my mini.

The assassin also takes significantly reduced damage while performing the smoke bomb animation, and will even negate the crowd control knockback effects of assault/tank charges (not sure about assault's charge 3)

smoke bomb is a get out of jail free card.

unless that jail is somebody who wants to grapple you mid-animation. Then it's a "thanks for stopping for long enough for me to get a hold of you" card.

ProTip: See a juicy target amongst the enemy team? As an assassin... just avoid it all together.

Thing is, you're not supposed to assassinate other players, when you're likely to be grappled afterwards: that's what a sniper is for.

Instead, aim for cutting off their supply of bots under cover, until they realise "Hey WTF where's our bots?!".

The occasional gunner or support away from their base defences though won't hurt if he's in the mid-field.

Au contraire, running in amongst the enemy team and blindly mashing RMB hoping to get a kill is absolutely how assassin should be played, otherwise it wouldn't be so prevalent

^^ROFL.

Damn straight. Invisibility=Invincibility.

Hitting a firebase or lvl 1 turret with one before attacking it will let you eliminate them before getting killed most of the time.