How much CTR UV would you normally want to have on a sword or gun? You already get CTR Medium for getting to level 10, and that's 1/3 of the maximum, if I'm correct. If you got a CTR High UV, it would limit the amount of CTR from gear that is effective to Low, right? If you got a CTR Very High UV, you would already have maxed out your CTR, so any extra CTR would be completely wasted. Would that mean that a Low or Medium CTR UV is better?
How much CTR is enough?
And that's because you won't have to wear other pieces to take CTR to max, freeing that slot(s) for other bonuses, like damage and ASI, or maybe some resistance, or another weapon type bonus.
I typed out a lot of text before I understood your question. Then I started again and typed even more.
How much CTR UV would you normally want to have on a sword or gun?
UV CTR: Very high.
You already get CTR Medium for getting to level 10, and that's 1/3 of the maximum, if I'm correct.
Yes, for that one weapon. I think you're implying that CTR is shared between items, which it is not, at least not negatively. You don't have a certain amount of CTR to spend over a certain amount of weapons. Maximum just means that that one item is at its full potential.
Bonuses go like this:
low (1)
medium (2)
high (3)
very high (4)
Ultra (5)
Maximum! (6)
Say you have two guns, a bomb and a sword. Gun A has UV CTR: High (2) and Gun B has none.
At level 10 Gun A would have High (3) and medium (2) for a combined CTR: Ultra (5).
Now say you take a trinket that adds CTR: low (1) guns.
Gun A now has CTR:High (3), Medium from levels (2) and Low from the trinket for CTR: Maximum! (6)
Does that mean Gun B gets no CTR bonus because Gun A is maximum?
No. At level 10 Gun B gets CTR:medium (2) from levels and CTR:low (1) from the trinket for a combined value of CTR: high (3). The trinket and armor give bonuses to ALL guns equally. That's why gun specific armor rewards you to carry as many guns as possible, they ALL benefit. UV's (Unique Variants) only apply to the weapon they're on.
Does that mean that the bomb or sword will have less CTR?
No. If you have a bomb with no UV on it, it'll still gain CTR: medium if it reaches level 10, despite you already owning a gun with Maxium! and a gun with High CTR.
So what does Maximum! refer to being the maximum of?
The bonus to that specific item. Say the last weapon, the sword has a UV of CTR: very high. At level 10 it would be CTR: very high (4) and medium (2) to reach Maximum!(6) What happens if you fill your last trinket slot with a trinket that gives all swords CTR: medium (2)? Nothing, the sword still has CTR: Maximum (6) because it cannot go any higher. It's at Maximum charge time reduction.
All this only applies to weapons though, armor is a whole different can of worms.
For Defenses: If you have a helmet with the UV Pierce defense: Maximum and an armor with the UV: Pierce defense Maximum they add up and you're a tank for all things piercing.
For Status effect bonuses like fire resistance there is a cap where they stop being more useful, but it takes a specialized fire set WITH fire resistance UV's to get there.
Sorry about that question, that could have been worded a lot better.
Taking Silphius' scenario, what if your combined gear gave CTR Medium to guns? That would still result in a CTR High UV level 10 gun having a total CTR of Maximum, so you might as well just have had a Medium UV instead, as the combined total CTR would be 2 (level CTR) +2 (UV CTR) +2 (gear CTR) = 6, still Maximum.
Stavrosg's response clears it up for me, just use different gear rather than use lower UVs. I don't know why that didn't occur to me, thanks O_o
I'm not entirely following what you're actually trying to say. Very High is obviously the best since with the natural Medium CTR your weapon gains at lv10 you reach Maximum. Any less than that fall short of the cap.