The Scoped NTEC-5 needs a change

[koenyboy500 66]

The Scoped NTEC-5. Nobody ever uses it, nobody  ever needs to.

 

As someone who performs extensive experimentations on a variety, if not all, weapons, I'd say that the ARMAS Scoped NTEC-5 is incredibly underpowered.

It's main gimmick is that the weapon, over it's normal NTEC-5 counterpart, gains more zoom (in terms of FOV) when you aim down sights. This is a neat something, but it has minimal impact on performance as the accuracy you gain with it is almost unnoticable. Let alone if you started firing a second bullet.

What does help the weapon over its normal counterpart is that it has a SLIGHTLY less severe damage drop-off when hitting targets beyond the maximum damage range. At the very best difference at 65m it takes 8 shots to kill opposed to the non-scoped NTEC-5's 10 shots.

 

 

Though as for its downside, you'll get a massive penalty to your accuracy if you are moving and aiming, which is not a problem for the normal NTEC-5. In fact, it is recommended to use Mobility Sling on the NTEC-5 so you can become more nimbler with it as you are aiming. The Scoped NTEC-5 however, gets absolutely crippled when you try to move and aim.

 

Standing still just to get a very tiny benefit of a better zoom mid-combat is suicide. The increased zoom does not help the gun in a realistic fight at the range it's meant to be in and it makes close quarter combat slightly less effective as well (though this was already a weakpoint of the NTEC-5 series).

Truth be told that if both user and enemy combatant are not in their optimal weaponrange and require more shots than usual, the smaller damage reduction beyond maximum range COULD be of help. but fighting someone outside of your comfortzone is not a smart thing to do, nor is it a good gameplan (and yes, I've tested this). Other weapons emphasize on adaptibility much much better.

 

TL:DR, the Scoped NTEC-5 wants to be more accurate and longer ranged but fails to make an impact on both ends. The downside of crippling your gun when moving is a good way to commit suicide. Nobody uses it nor do they want to.

 

So I would like to ask here on the forum what YOU would want to see for the weapon in terms of a balancing touch-up towards the current day of APB:R. I'm not asking for it to be overpowered nor to replace the NTEC-5, but as of now it is a downgrade in almost all circumstances. Give it some specialisation that would make a player want to use this (compared to...)

(and of course the emphasis should lie on the difference of it being 'scoped' in contrast of the 'nonscoped' variants.)

[koenyboy500 66]

Personally I think that the NTEC-7c 'New Glory' stole all the expertise of what the Scoped NTEC-5 wanted to be.

Whilst it is fair that such a dramatic change would indeed make it a 'Legendary' status, along with having a much more modular model. I do think that the NTEC-7c stole the spotlight of what could have been.

 

As for the Scoped NTEC-5, I think the zoom could be increased alongside its effective range (+- 15m), but this would have to come with a big trade-off. Standing still for this however, is unacceptable.

[MACKxBOLAN 465]

I would agree that any gun having IR3 on it, should have the drop off range buffed. 

seems the drop off range is written into the gun rather than the mods. 

I can understand the scoped ntec to be a bit cumbersome in close fights, 

however the ntec 5 even with cj3 or no red mods is too cumbersome in close fights. 

I would expect a gun with a metal folding stock to be lighter than the full wooden stock. 

Easier to turn or track or lead targets. 

[Wasted_Potential 106]

Tfw still no scoped CSG

[Ardita 182]

  On 6/8/2025 at 7:50 PM, Wasted_Potential said:

Tfw still no scoped CSG

Scoped SHAW will be the new thing tho

[koenyboy500 66]

  On 6/15/2025 at 4:07 PM, Ardita said:

Scoped SHAW will be the new thing tho

Funny you mention this as a joke. But the more I think about it, the more I realise that the SHAW and the playstyle of the Scoped N-TEC is kinda similar.

But then the question is, why settle for a 30~ ammo magazine tapfiring when you can hold down the button and rain lead amongst an even further distance?

Not much of an 'assault rifle' now is it? I bet the SHAW could lead the front better.

[BlatMan 724]

Currently, the Scoped N-TEC is only good for crouch spraying. If you need to stand and shoot, there's other rifles that work better.

 

The movement penalty wouldn't be so bad if APB's aim didn't skip around. The minimum rotation is way too high for a shooter. You have to wiggle left and right to compensate for the lack of camera precision. There's also a lot of locations with cover that require moving slightly to raise the gun high enough to shoot over the cover. You can't take advantage of those spots if your weapon loses accuracy while moving ADS.

[LilyRain 709]

  On 6/7/2025 at 3:41 PM, koenyboy500 said:

I'd say that the ARMAS Scoped NTEC-5 is incredibly underpowered.

While I do disagree, let's us pretend for a moment that is true.

I'd say that is a good thing. Armas should only sell cosmetics moving forward.

'Nuuu, it isn't Pay2Win'. Too bad new players won't give a damn to study the game. They see gameplay elements being sold on Armas, they'll leave. Game is already a graveyard as is, it should stop increasing gravestones.

[koenyboy500 66]

  On 6/16/2025 at 2:21 PM, LilyRain said:

While I do disagree, let's us pretend for a moment that is true.

I'd say that is a good thing. Armas should only sell cosmetics moving forward.

If you disagree on it not being underpowered and therefore completely disproving this ENTIRE topic then atleast try to explain why you would think that way so that the topic could be resolved.

 

As for only cosmetic items, I wholeheartedly agree. Not really what this was all about but yeah, all for that.

 

The problem however is that you are gonna get nerfed hard for using this variant when using the normal N-TEC (which you get really early in the game) is much better. There is no incentive to use it.

Hec, who ever does use it? I look forward to reading your strategy as to how to make the gun work in your favor (over other weaponry).

[LilyRain 709]

  On 6/16/2025 at 9:54 PM, koenyboy500 said:

If you disagree on it not being underpowered and therefore completely disproving this ENTIRE topic then atleast try to explain why you would think that way so that the topic could be resolved.

Mobility for Assault Rifles as a whole got massively suppressed over the years (running & gunning, jump shooting, etc).

With N-TEC, one must either be moving or still, can't do both. If you're planning on doing both simultaneously, you must be at kissing-distance, else you're sacrificing accuracy regardless 'and you should swap to a weapon that better suits the situation' (I don't fully agree with this but that's how the 'balancers' wanted the game to be, effectively making it so restrictive as of today to the point of imminent population death).

This by nature doesn't count as a point for Scoped N-TEC alone. This is a global balancing restriction that should be changed across the board.
 

  On 6/16/2025 at 9:54 PM, koenyboy500 said:

As for only cosmetic items, I wholeheartedly agree. Not really what this was all about but yeah, all for that.

Thanks

 

  On 6/16/2025 at 9:54 PM, koenyboy500 said:

The problem however is that you are gonna get nerfed hard for using this variant when using the normal N-TEC (which you get really early in the game) is much better. There is no incentive to use it.

Hec, who ever does use it? I look forward to reading your strategy as to how to make the gun work in your favor (over other weaponry).

I must expand a bit because Armas sells more than 1 variant of Scoped N-TEC.

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My disagreement goes for Dvah and PR2:

Dvah: Offers THREE open mod slots, a complete dream for new players because it would take ages for them to unlock crimslayer/copsbane (3 open slot regular n-tec). Even 2 open slots ('Adeen') will take them decent time (1500 total kills) with the prolonged matchmaking, low population and needing to actually score kills on veterans and cheaters. For a newbie, 1500 kills is a dream.

PR2: Comes standard with both Hunting Sight 3 and Improved Rifling 3, pretty much set for life as far as N-TECs in general are concerned. The 3rd slot is just added competitiveness, something newbies won't even realize possible yet nor good enough to execute properly.

So ultimately, with Dvah and PR2, a new player is most certainly getting returns on what they are paying for. Lasting 'permanently' if they are also interested in not paying for N-TEC leases every 10 days.
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Sadly, the most 'scam' variant is the [Scoped NTEC-5 RT1].

The long reload time from Extended Mag 3: While virtually harmless (the weapon without it already has enough bullets to kill 5 opponents) is objectively a bad mod to have on this weapon. What makes it a scam however is that the weapon is doomed to never have Hunting Sight nor Red mods. This weapon simply should not exist on Armas for every reason.

And of course, the PR1. It is basically PR2 without Improved Rifling 3. An underwhelming purchase since it is doomed to have only 1 slot, strictly housing HS3 but it is still a short-term benefit for a newbie. HS3 entirely transforms Assault Rifles.
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Incentive...

This is pretty much the portion that I will never agree with and this is why I mentioned that Armas should become cosmetics exclusive.

Let us not forget what "incentives" did to OCA&PMG vs OCA 'Whisper' PR. Made APB even more close range centeric when it wasn't even needed, shamelessly to sell that nonsense. They didn't even hide it.... "it was important to ensure that this gun still had a special function that made it feel distinct from the base model" they said while REPEATING the OCA ttk-buff as a CORE STANDARD from 0.7s to 0.67s [Source: https://www.gamersfirst.com/apb/news/2020/9/11/weapon-balance]

 

The game got destroyed enough as is for way over a decade. Let us not give LO an excuse to make another guaranteed & exaggerated dumb-balance changes to continue repeating history for the millionth time.

[Ardita 182]

  On 6/15/2025 at 6:39 PM, koenyboy500 said:

Funny you mention this as a joke. But the more I think about it, the more I realise that the SHAW and the playstyle of the Scoped N-TEC is kinda similar.

But then the question is, why settle for a 30~ ammo magazine tapfiring when you can hold down the button and rain lead amongst an even further distance?

Not much of an 'assault rifle' now is it? I bet the SHAW could lead the front better.

Soon it will be Scoped Rocket Launcher ^_^ | >_> | <_< | O_O

[koenyboy500 66]

How about the Scoped NTEC-5 becoming a "Marksman rifle" that plays like an Obeya but is more accuracte and stable. It's firerate is horrible so it's TTK is NOT oppressive but you can land your shots effectively.

Kind of like a worse STAR "LCR" as you're not allowed to move and having to stand still completely. Having a firerate slower than sped-up counting.

It's similar to what we have now (or rather what it WANTS to be) but giving it 'Marksman rifle' attributes can help it set apart from the rest in the N-TEC series. Emphasizing on long range and making it bad at medium-ranges where the N-TEC can outshine the Scoped variant with ease.

Guess it would be a NOT-OP bootleg N-TECc7 'New Glory'. 6 shots to kill, terrible RPM. But atleast you're allowed to hit things and at further ranges, making it 'technicly useable'.

[vsb 6198]

  On 6/17/2025 at 4:43 AM, LilyRain said:

one must either be moving or still, can't do both

no shit bro? that’s crazy