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From what I see in battle reports people usually just zoom their little piranha ahead as nothing more than speed bumps, or they get killed off by small arms fire rather quickly. People also don't seem to be disembarking drones before the fish blows up too, which always baffles me. It seems like what you'd want to do is disembark the drones and uses those as a speed bump while the fish just run around harassing stuff and trying to nab objectives.

Like, am I missing something, or are people using these things wrong? I'd very much appreciate some help and guidance on how you all use piranha, because what I've been watching people do seems to fail and waste points.

My buddy uses his as an objective grabber. Let's the rest of the army fight while he holds an objective with the drones and bounces around with the piranha speed for another. Uses it in a pinch for light infantry killing and sometimes uses the drones as a speed bump

I only use them as solo units to zip around the flanks to either suicide grab a maelstrom objective or try to hide and harass the enemy rear. Due to their low points and relatively high damage absorption potential (jink saves) they can be good and cheap distractions potentially buying time for the rest of the Tau force to get some extra shooting in. Dropping off the drones on turn 1 is usually the plan but sometimes its helpful to ferry them to the enemy backfield to harass the back line (too bad they can't score).

I like using a group of 3 with sensor spines to drop drones, zip onto points that I immediately need and for screening if necessary. I mostly have a fusion blasters attached for offensive flexibility since I know my tank busters can come short on distance or dice some of the time (especially so when I flat out stopped using Hammerheads).

I can kinda understand the need to hold onto drones for later in the game for scenarios that may require an extra MSU-style distraction unit or extra screening further up the field. I've had a few instances where an opponent knew the better idea was not to bother shooting them which has enabled them to do some whacky stuff (killing Vulkan was my favorite). Or the case where there is an infantry heavy army and having an extra 4 pulse shots a piranha is helpful

Ever since I started using ATT's Rinyon encirclements I kinda wish they had the ability to outflank again since being able to deploy them on the opponent's side of the field would be really scary

Piranhas are super cheap for their chassis when you take into account the drones. They come out to something like 18pts once you take out the points for the two drones, so they're essentially cheaper Stealth Suits with more mobility but less survivability, that also require you to take some drones.

So as we all know Burst Cannons aren't particularly great, but at the same time the Tau has plenty of shooting that is generally better than a Fusion Blaster on a Piranha. Not only that but a lot of the sustain of the Piranha comes from jinking, making the shooting worse, and the Fusion Blaster costs more than half of the base chassis. In other words, except for extreme cases the Fusion Blaster isn't a great upgrade, but the Seeker Missile can be ok, though usually you want at least one Skyray in your list, so it's not like you really need them to have seekers.

Where does that put Piranhas then? Well as you said a lot of people use them as speed bumps due to their mobility and ability to survive reasonably well by jinking. However, that's probably not the best way, as the drones they pack can easily be used for the purpose, especially since they can deploy them and speed off or move six inches and then deploy them but stay stationary. This means that the Piranha is amazing at creating it's own little speed bump, while itself staying alive to go off and grab objectives.

In my opinion that's the best use of a Piranha, a mobile objective grabber that creates speed bumps in the form of drones, and isn't all that expensive either.

With a Fusion Blaster, they are probably like a Space Marine Attack Bike with a Multimelta. They should probably be used as such. With the drones, they are even more versatile, as the attack bike cannot detach its twin boltgun. They even cost less, so perhaps they are even better. Of course, the downside is that Tau accuracy is worse than that of muhreens, but still the two units seem analogous.

I find them best served as harassment. Mobile, and fast, and able to put out a considerable about of 5/5 firepower at 18 (8 shots each, 4 of them twin-linked). Also, keep in mind that more than half of their cost is made up for by the gun drones themselves. Try to keep enemies in front of you though, as bolters can take you out with your rear or side armour. Ad be doubly scared of any blast weapons, as you are open-topped.

Don't really expect them to kill much, but they can be annoying as all hell. A great distraction, especially with some good jinking.

The problem with throwing Fusion on them is that they're eating a fast attack slot for something we can get in other places, while also having a high cost for that Fusion in that the points for it aren't the cheapest and they lose a lot of shooting potential when they jink.

Maybe if they had the ability to take Markerlights I could see using Fusion on them more... Oh man, that would probably make them amazing if they came or could upgrade to gain Markerlights in the new codex, sort of like a Tetra variant D:

I arm mine with seeker missiles and then keep them in reserves. They act as a reload of sorts for my skyray. They come on, drop off their drones and fire at whatever the skyray marks. After that they're a harassment unit.