PUMA VJTF was a waste of time grinding…

Machinery of War Discussion Ground Vehicle
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So, I was excited for the patch to come out today. Like, super excited. Next week, when I am able to, I am going to buy the Al-Khalid and grind out China, something I’ve been meaning to get around to. The CV9035NL is unfortunately a squadron vehicle but paves the way for Benelux vehicles to come in.

Anyway, that’s not what this post is about. It’s about a particular vehicle that, as soon as I got home, I started grinding and unlocked by the end of the day and began playing it. The PUMA VJTF. To say I was disappointed is an understatement.

This vehicle was my first exposure to using spike missiles, I hadn’t had the time to get the Vilkas last winter and the rest of them are in other trees. I want to highlight a few issues with the vehicle itself as well as the missiles.

I would say the chassis itself is actually quite good. Very mobile, decently protected and with a crewless turret. That’s where the positives end.

1)The 30mm autocannon is a pea shooter, even against light vehicles it can take a number of shots to kill. It will get better once I unlock the APFSDS, but still.

2)The spikes are genuinely unusable. In the dozen or so times I’ve shot them at enemies, I’ve not gotten a single kill and only 1 critical hit. Sure, some of these were from user error, for example sometimes they’d hit a tree I hadn’t seen. But, for the reasons I list below this is very very bad.

3)The spikes don’t seem to know how to hit an enemy. In the times I’ve hit enemies, the spikes often just hit the cupola or machine gun and do absolutely no damage. I’ve even had them somehow ricochet off the roof of Abrams tanks. Due to the low explosive mass, it is essentially impossible to overpressure a tank and all the damage must be done via the actual warhead.

4)The spikes have very low pen and post pen damage. If they even manage to connect, there is a strong chance the missile will simply not penetrate the armor/do essentially no damage. This is easily observable in the test drive, even against T-55s the spike has trouble killing them in one hit. 700mm base pen + tandem charge is sinply insufficient when combined with hit reliability, accuracy, and post pen effect.

Overall, I was quite disappointed by the PUMA VJTF and I would recommend you to not bother grinding it.

I don’t make this post to crap on anybody who may enjoy this vehicle, but if you do, please let me know how you do it.

12 Likes
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Are spikes just a missile type? Are they the same ones on Vilkas and on helicopters in game?

Do you think the The PUMA VJTF is at a good br or would you want it lowered?

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Yes, they are fire and forget missiles. There are individual variants for different vehicles, for helicopters it’s the Spike ER variant and for ground vehicles it’s the Spike LR variant.

The PUMA VJTF is at an alright BR… the chassis is quite good in my opinion, but the missiles are highly disappointing. If the missiles were fixed/buffed, then 10.7 would be appropriate.

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Just like last patch they shouldn’t even have bothered implementing the Namer with Spikes in their current state. Spikes are a complete joke unless you’re using Spike ERs of a helicopter and want to shoot down another helicopter. In that scenario they are surprisingly capable.

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they already have the code for the trajectory for the spike missiles.

they should be top attack but they refuse to implement it and if you tag a moderator they wont answer

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Not sure what the surprise was here? Spikes have always been very average in this game. To make it worse, they have half the guidance time of the QN506’s missiles, so they’re not even good at hunting helicopters (the QN506 can hunt helicopters anywhere on the globe - spike will blow up before reaching helicopter).

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Yes just like every single other ground vehicle that has had the implemented it wasn’t surprising that there’s still been no change.

TOW 2Bs last patch were also finally updated with “gravity” so they’re now also equally unusable unless the target is +600 meters to give the missile enough time to stabilize from Gaijin’s programming it to fire in to the ground then swing up then pull back down from gravity.

Either Gaijin’s developers are stupid or it’s intentional malevolence for NATO technology so that it doesn’t outmatch Russia’s dumbfire missiles that instead chose to focus on speed rather than precision.

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Compares the puma vjtf to the vilkas the vilkas is better it has optical lock for the spike and the spike are aiming up so it easy to use
Also the puma vjtf APS around it doesn’t even work so they should move it down or fix the spike and the fix lock problem maybe just give it more spike that 1 Italy vehicle have 10 spike and it sit at 10.0 so it shouldn’t be a problem

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both pumas get a LOT better when you unlock their best ammo. You have to play it like a SPAA and get side shots, for the most part, or if you cant, then take out barrels and tracks, etc.

This is a not-used to and a skill issue dude… adjust your outlooks and paradigms… they are skewed.

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Agreed, I can hit helis from spawn to spawn with rhe ah-60 but other than that it’s basically a cheap gimmick for ground vehicles.

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So you just completely ignored the spike thing. The main complaint is they finally gave the puma spikes and they still suck…

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okay? kinda irrellevant tho… Im talking about what the vehicles DO have and CAN do. And both pumas are good. Very survivable and do good damage, with their apds rounds

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I didn’t know an important part of its weaponry was irrelevant but okay.

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PUMA’s are survivable for a light tank but not for the weight category they are at they need a fix to their aps to make it functional and a fix for their armor to make it resistant to what its supossed to be resistant irl

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There was an issue, that Spike LR2 in reality has a penetration of over 1000mm. But I think Gaijin is afraid to make them OP and then get a shitstorm again. When fire and forget was introduced with the Tiger UHT (Pars 3 LR), there was a lot of hate for this type of missile. I think that could be a reason why when they introduced this type of missile with spike for ground vehicles, they introduced it very weakly at the beginning, improved it slowly and added it first to the nation that had the fewest players (Italy).
At least you can now get kills with spike and lock on targets even if you can’t see at least half of the enemy vehicle.
Additionally the Puma has the same problem as the Freccia. The position at which the missiles are mounted allows you to hit targets even if they are closer than 300 metres away, but the missile has a different trajectory than if you fire it from the Lynx or Vilkas with their angle of attack, unless you fire it explicitly upwards. At least in my experience, which I’ve had with Lynx for a year now and with the Puma VJTF for a few days, this changed trajectory means that you get even fewer good hits and kills than with Vilkas or Lynx.

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Yeah I’ve been using the VJTF for a few days now and wow does this thing suck at 10.7.

  • The SPIKES are incredibly unreliable, usually taking at least 2 of them for a kill (if they even hit at all).
  • With only 4 SPIKES, you’ll quickly run out and be no different to the basic 10.0 PUMA
  • The thing is stuck in repair and ammo rack city. Any shot to it will destroy your turret and tracks.
  • The AHEAD ammunition is a wasted belt. Seriously. You won’t achieve anything more than a hit against aircraft with it
  • Big ol’ wart sticking out the top of it that’ll give you away the moment you peek a hill
  • No other German tech tree vehicles sit at 10.7

I’m retiring this thing already till it’s BR is dropped or they make it more reliable. At least at 10.0 the normal PUMA kinda works, though why it’s at the same BR as the 2S38 is another story

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I have it for my final crew slot for my top tier lineup, but I’m thinking of switching it for the Radkampfwagen 90.

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do it, thats a good one

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im just saying even for their BR they are quite survivable. Sure you can still get 1 or 2 tapped…

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I’m having the same experience here.

As someone who has been playing this game for several years and has spaded around 70% of all tanks, the PUMA VJTF is one of the worst ground vehicles, period. I’m halfway through the modifications, and so far, it has been one of the most miserable grinds ever, with one of the worst KDs of any vehicle. I even managed to spade the Type 60 ATM with a positive KD, but I can’t make the Puma work outside of makeshift AA.

The VJTF shouldn’t have a BR higher than 10.0, since the Spikes are completely useless, and the 30mm at 10.7 is pretty much only effective against helicopters, in fact, at such BR, the 2S38, Begleit, or even the ZSU-57-2 will do much better. What were the Gaijin devs thinking when they put this thing at 10.7?

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