Since the new Puma is BR 10.7, there is no lineup to support the vehicle. There are simply no other tanks at this BR. So I uptiered it to max BR, thats the best solution imho.
While its ok vs choppers and the gun does its job vs light vehicles, the SPIKE ATGMs simply can’t kill anything. They always slam into strongest part of the tank: The UFP. Ist low pen value can’t compete vs. these main armor arrays. On russian tanks like T-90/T-80/T-72 chassis they just turn the ERA plates yellow…they don’t even knock off the ERA panel so a follow up shot might do the job.
Spikes are too weak.
They lack penetration.
The can’t even deal with Kontakt-5. Its a dual shaped charge warhead???!
The flight path is strange. If goes high up towards the sky, but then descents in a strange way (too early) and slams into the frontal armor anyways. Whats the point of going high then?
Turret mods like roof MGs and persocopes eat up ALL the damage. I had several shot where Spike hit the rooftop MG and just turned it red (no even black) and did nothing. Something is not right here.
This missile badly needs a fix. The base Puma is BR 10.0. The Spike equipped PUMA is 10.7. These +0.7 BR are for nothing. The Spike missile is not able to kill a MBT. Even all 4 shot at a T-90 won’t do it.
I unlocked it last night, and had the same experience. In the 7 or 8 games I had the chance to play (I didn’t unlock it until late at night), I didn’t get a single kill with spikes and only 4 with the autocannon.
It feels like 1 in 10 missiles actually hit, 1 in 10 hits actually do damage, and 1 in 10 damaging hits actually kill.
When Spike hits a roof machine gun: It turns red. Means its still operable. Even fails to take out the MG.
Same with ERA plates. I was stunned as I shot 2 Spikes into a T-90 and its turret and UFP era blocks just turned yellow.
It not even triggers an ERA explosion. The 9.7 BR Tow 2A is alot better imho. When I go with my Wiesel, I can attack russian tanks succesfully. A 9.7 ATGM beats 10.7 Spikes. Thats a bit iffy.
Its understandable that they’d want spikes especially if you missed out on the vilkas. Regardless no spike vehicle imo is worth a br increase with their current state.
Yeah, thats how gaijin planned it. Its not a sytem i agree with but its what we have until they change it. Idk how most players didnt expect this with the puma thoigh considering the Lynx is a worse vehicle and was thrown into the 10.7 shadowrealm. Regardless almost all nations with spikes and those that will get spikes in the future will suffer the inconsistent BR until gaijin changes their mind.
You are either really unlucky or don’t pay attention to non-oneshot ATGM hits. I’d bet that you don’t realize how many of ATMG hits actually do something. Like 1 out of 6-7 actually gets you a kill
Everything is because Gaijin did it deliberately for the sake of “balance”. Basically, all of Nato’s new IFVs have spike missiles/or their analogues, while Russia has been insisting on aiming line guidance. Therefore, in the current game, as long as Nato’s fifth-generation anti-tank missile is turned into garbage, Gaijin’s so-called “balance” can be maintained.
Therefore, a funny fact can be found in War Thunder: more advanced anti-tank missiles must be modified because they need to serve “game balance”, which is worse than traditional direct-aiming anti-tanks. Therefore, this is beneficial to some countries that still insist on using old missiles (9M127/9M133/9M120)
was absorbed by the gun breech. Hit 2 was totally absorbed by the periscope and the gunner. The best result I got in 3 evenings playing Puma VJTF.
But why is this 10.7? It simply does no damage. You can actually fire all 4 Spikes without ever getting a kill. Its BR needs to be much, much lower. Every vehicle should be at least able to kill an opponent with its strongest weapon and when thats not possible, the BR mus be lowered.
The ground-launched Spike LR proves to be an inadequate choice for contemporary ground RB engagements against other tanks. This is primarily due to two inherent limitations.
Firstly, the Spike LR possesses a minimum launch distance of 500 meters, rendering it ineffective at closer ranges. Given that numerous maps in War Thunder’s ground battle feature engagement distances within this threshold, the utility of the Spike LR is significantly curtailed.
Secondly, Gaijin’s current implementation of the fire-and-forget mechanism is flawed. The Spike is programmed to target the turret, more specifically the breech, rather than the hull. Coupled with the missile’s relatively modest warhead, its efficacy against tanks equipped with explosive reactive armour is severely compromised.
I unlocked the Puma VJTF yesterday and oh boy, it’s even worse than with the Lynx, which I like to use to collect enough points for CAS early on, thanks to spotting and kill assists.
At least with the high siluette and the even higher atgm launcher, the Lynx can hide well behind cover and scout and shoot from there.
With the Puma you have to stick out the whole turret. Even if it is unmanned, you will be spotted more quickly and all the ammunition in the turret will be anihilated with one shot. You also have to make sure that the Spike doesn’t hit the ground if you shoot it too low and you have to check whether there is anything in the way to the left of the actual angle of view, because the rocket is not launched from the centre.
And with Lynx and Vilkas you can now get at least one kill with the 4 missiles on 11.7. Especially on very large maps where you fight over large ranges.
