Introduction
I'm a tank.
What does that mean? It means I use haze bombs to generate aggro, and I keep it by restricting use of dash unless not doing so would end up killing me.
I frequently use Stagger Storm and Venom Veiler: the former to subdue enemies so they're far more predictable, and the latter to increase general party survivability, as even the Swiftstrike Buckler can take multiple hits from poisoned Tier 3 enemies.
I've found though that there are two things that often generate enough threat to cause monsters to switch targets, and that's the Blitz Needle (especially when people just spam it harmlessly at the front shield of a Trojan instead of taking the time to walk around it since it's not even paying attention to them) as well as other Haze Bombs.
The Shivermist Buster
I really clash heads with players who use the Shivermist Buster for many reasons.
Now this is probably just me, but to my understanding, a combination of Stun and Freeze is a diminishing return. Stun already reduces mob movement to a crawl, while Shivermist stops them entirely. Although that also effects turn rate, Stun slows mob attack rate to a point where it's barely threatening, although I admit Freeze still is quite useful for turrets.
Secondly though, is a problem more people might relate to. In Firestorm Citadel, when someone is using Shivermist a lot... it tends to build giant walls of frozen Slags. Now in a level where there are timed spike and fire traps everywhere, and monsters that can create fairly large fire-inflicting, long duration AoE attacks, this can be pretty deadly if you get stuck on the wrong side of one. As someone who likes to get really close and personal with monsters so I can focus heavily on their direction of attack and be able to sidestep attacks with very little movement, this is a massive threat to me.
You can't shield bump enemies out of freeze, and you often can't break the freeze before the haze has dispersed.
Thirdly, it doesn't do anything to Trojans if you're standing on the wrong side of them. While I understand that more experienced players are probably experts in holding Trojans, less coordinated players are less likely to be able to do so, and also in bad circumstances Trojans do occasionally escape such as if your get mobbed by nearby enemies or you need to move for some reason.
Fourthly, it blocks knockback. Most my weapons have close ties with knockback. Volcanic Pepperbox's charge creates a spray that keeps back enemies within a cone of effect, and I've discovered it even works well at keeping devilites just out of projectile range. Sudaruska throws enemies to the other side of the room, effectively removing them from the battle for a good few seconds while you deal with more pressing matters, or just simply used to do a Gandalf. Iron Slug deals more damage the further it knocks back enemies. (and I've noticed Slug sometimes even pulls mobs out of a Shivermist's radius) However freeze does increase damage from VPB and FoV since you can get a full charge on frozen enemies.
My Strategy
The way I handle Trojans is by dropping a Haze Bomb, doesn't matter which but my preference is the Stagger Storm, within range of a Trojan to build threat on it. Doesn't matter if the bomb is facing the shield, the attempts of status infliction, even while being blocked by the shield, still generate threat.
5+ seconds in the haze and the Trojan can take combo after combo to its back and it won't turn around, instead keeping its focus on me. I like this because my teammates can't, through action, do something that would get me killed
I don't really care what order my teammates take care of enemies. Of course if they get rid of the Trojan first, I can return to attacking since there isn't a lumbering giant staring me down every time I want to use a Suda/Slug/Pepperbox charge, but if they clean up the smaller mobs first, they'll have an easier time moving around and actually getting to the Trojan.
When I'm holding a Trojan is the only time I exclusively use a non-damaging status bomb like the Stagger Storm, at all other times I alternate charging it and a more offensive weapon.
Conclusion
Now that's my strategy with Haze Bombs. How do I handle mobs when a person is using Shivermist Buster, exclusively? It seems almost lazy, since it can still cause some quite dangerous circumstances.
I find it really frustrating too when someone is using the Shivermist Buster, draws all aggro, and then gets killed by the enemies they drew the aggro of. I haven't yet heard anyone complain in this situation, but if they do, they can bet they'll get a piece of my mind.
Is this just me not knowing how2playgame? Does anyone else have difficulty telling where the monster telegraphs are underneath the Shivermist's haze? Or am I just the only person who gets hit by frozen enemies?
Well I don't usually take my shivermist unless I have multiple slots open, but in the past what I've done is try to make sure the area where we are staying is where the freeze radius is. Third depth of FSC at the end with wave upon wave of 5 slags? I drop my shivermists constantly right up next to the door because that means they won't get frozen over the spikes. Some people will still brandish-charge them off the area but they likely are thinking more "omgenemy, must attack" rather than "if I kill things up here in the constant freeze, I won't have to go down and pick up loot because it'll all spawn on me!"
Your strategy with haze bombs? It's interesting. However it seems that you're going more for drawing aggro than actually inflicting the status, which is what most players I've seen use haze bombs for. This is likely why you see other haze bomb users acting differently.
As for noticing when enemies attack under the mist bomb, that's something you need to be be attentive to in general. Looking for one sign and one sign only that a monster is attacking is likely to get you hit. The windup visual, the animation itself, and the noises all designate certain attacks - for example gremlin thwackers will make a sort of "HWAAH" noise when doing a standard attack, make a chuckle when throwing their hammer, a sort of heavy breathing for healing themselves, and what I think is the equivalent to a gremlin swear (OH $#&! OH $#&!) when doing their spin attack.
With that in mind, frozen enemies have one less thing to look at when attacking, but I mean it's not like they're suddenly going to turn around to 360 no-scope you.
Final bits, if someone is freezing enemies, keep them in the freeze range. If possible, get behind the mobs and attack from there. They can't attack what they can't see! If they turn around then, well, you can just walk around them again. It's a death sentence to attack any mob in this game from the front (or just in general spam clicking in their attack range), freeze doesn't change that stance.