Currently, I’m 70k rp away from purchasing the PUMA as it’s in sale so I figure why not purchase it.
However, after seeing its stats and everything i’m a bit concerned if I should even try to play this thing. It seems fun once you get past the stock APDS grind but it seems overtiered compared to what it has to fight.
Does anyone know if this thing is still good? I’d like to play it if it is since it seems like a blast but don’t want to waste 240k crewing it when i’m low on silver right now.
Massively lacking in firepower with no ATGMs, as well as mediocre mobility and armour that- while better than most IFVs- won’t stop any tank cannon or ATGM you face. Unless you really like autocannon-only vehicles, would not recommend. If you’ve got the Vilkas, that will always be better, or even the Begleit is typically more effective.
Having not touched it myself, it looks unimpressive to me, but a friend of mine swears by it. From my time playing the 9040s, I can say that autocannon only lights at the tier offer a new and novel, but not nessesarily effective playstyle. I find fun in trying to make something unconventional like that work, and when you do get the flank it’s very satisfying to just rip through stuff with an autocannon. And I find it more fun doing that then playing something like the Leo 2, which is just so good at everything it feels kinda bland to play.
So ultimately I would say it’s worth it if you think you’d enjoy a significant change of pace, but if you’re just looking for effective vehicles it might be worth a skip.
The Puma has a problem. It can withstand too much for an armored personnel carrier. You can take a lot with it and you have really fine passive protection systems like the LWS. And so he climbed in the BR in the past. But you simply don’t have any firepower. You often even have problems penetrating tanks from the side on the BR.
BUT: He’s great as a scout. So if you can live with the fact that the KDR is abysmally bad, it can even be used in this role in the 11.7 setup. There is a significant lack of spotters. And you are therefore extremely valuable to the team in this role.
It’s overtiered and doesn’t really have much going for its BR, like people said here the Begleitpanzer is far more capable at taking out tanks far beyond its BR and unlike the PUMA it has working HE-VT for anti-air duties, PUMA would be good at 10.0 if AHEAD actually worked as intended.
Schützenpanzer Puma IFV: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly. - Page 2 - Light Vehicles - War Thunder - Official Forum 140 pages of why its shit and doesnt have its features it should have. Besides that it was recently just nerfed even more in terms of turret rotation from 60 down to 45 degrees. To put it mildly dont pursue the german TT further as its dead due to community and devs having a hate on the german TT. Play US, Russia or Sweden all three of them are braindead easy mode.
No? Us gets Undertiered planes, Sweden has meta vehicles currently. Neither are “braindead easymode” and America currently sits at an abysmal winrate in ground and below average in air due to premium spam. Sweden is currently meta at top tier. That does not mean they are “easy mode” and only perform as well as they due because their players are generally more experienced.
So against everything everyone has said on here, I decided to crew the PUMA and try it as I have never actually played an autocannon vehicle before and wanted to try it.
Holy crap, I love it. The stock APDS is not amazing but it’s nowhere near bad it shreds the side of MBT’s. I’m not doing amazing with it but it’s so fun and easily one of the most chill stock grinds I have ever had.
I was expecting it to be really bad but this thing has ignited my love for autocannon vehicles and I can’t wait to get the BMP-2 in the Russian tech tree too.
The PUMA’s mobility + protection which is abnormally high for an IFV + its unmanned turret help make up for its mediocre auto cannon although IRL the cannon’s purpose wouldn’t be to engage MBTs anyway.
As others have mentioned it’s lacking its Spikes. It’s possible Gaijin may uptier it in the future when adding these but they might also simply add a new PUMA variation.
Overall it’s an effective light tank at the BR rating its placed assuming you’re not in a full uptier. You can’t engage Russian MBTs frontally but most other tanks you can generally get through the breech with enough shots. Luckily for Russian MBTs if you can disable their cannon and flank their side their lower flanks can be penetrated with just ~20mm although you’ll have to punch through the ERA a few times, after that it’s rapid Russian space program.
Played as a support vehicle or force multiplier it is very effective. It is not meant to engage alone, it works best supporting your team with information / distraction. You also can engage helicopters as you have IRST tracking and the Puma’s specialized “AHEAD” ammo although Gaijin has not properly modeled its tracking information ingame.
On par with the Bradley but less capable alone than the Bradley.
You can’t even engage them from the side until you get some unlocks, so it’s RNG and having to run into the right targets to get anything done, which just results in situations where getting a kill is twice as hard as getting it in a normal tank so what’s the point then?
Utilize good cover to destroy tracks / barrels. Scout. Harass, flank when presented with opportunity. Help keep the skies clear when possible. Use your scout drone.