Honestly, these changes don't seem so bad but I won't be getting around to testing/playing for awhile.
While EX Smoke Bomb is +5 instead of +8, it's always been hard as hell to hitconfirm (unless you're hitconfirming right after the mixup), but it seems there is added block-stun, which makes it easier to hitconfirm or for opponents to backdash/Armor after it. However, if you hitconfirm by
one frame too late you'll get poked after spending a bar. (anyone else's opinion/experience on this?)
Additionally, Smoke can't "guarantee" a mixup after EX Smoke Bomb anymore, at least 10 frames for your opponent to do whatever he wants, his options are limited to f4 (to beat pokes/jumps) or b1 (to beat backdashes).
Slower b3? Alright.. So we can forget about delaying b3 to destroy fuzzies because fuzzy'ing his mixups are impossible now, not a fan of making people guess and losing neutral tools but it's whatever.
Damage nerf? Holy smokes, why?
Adjusted hit-stun advantage on basically every string? Great! Guess I'll start labbing all that phase-data again
ffs
Smoke didn't need a single nerf in my opinion, but hopefully with this they can start nerfing the rest of the roster if the plan is still a balanced MKX cause DLC is going to be scarce at tournaments.