Is there a guide on how to read guides?

[BillyBlades]

New player here, so I don't know what I'm doing.

 

A friend told me to make a Spines/Fire Aura Brute for farming. He's power leveling it and no, it's not my first character (three or four in their 30s and several lower), but will be my first 50.

 

I search for guides and find this one. And I have no clue what any of it means.

 

Level 1: Lunge -- Hct-Dam%(A), Hct-Dmg/Rchg(42), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), Hct-Acc/Rchg(42), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx(43)

 

Guessing "Hct-Dam%" is an enhancement of some kind but which one? What's the info in parenthesis?

 

Why doesn't something say "at level 1 select this/these powers" and "at level three put enhancement slots on X and Y"? It lists what I assume are Pool Powers, but don't say which pool they're from. 

 

Totally lost and would appreciate any pointers to reading these.

 

Thanks all!

[Omega Force]

Hecatomb, and the info in parenthesis are the slot levels.  The Automatic slot that comes with the power, 42, & 43.  But you aren't supposed to read those, that's just shorthand garbage spit out by Mids and is wrong besides - organically you don't wait until level 42 to start slotting your first power.  It's only written that way because the builder did not direct the program to arrange slots in proper order.  Often they'll forget to put the powers in the correct order, which is a problem if you try to do a low level task force with the build.

 

What you *actually* do is load that build into Mids, which automagically provides a clear display of the character's entire stats, including power selection and slotting.  There ARE guides that break down power selection and discussion, but those are distinct from builds, which assume you know about the powers and are just for improving performance.

[BillyBlades]

Thanks, that helps a lot. The post I was looking at didn't have a block for Mids, it had a "Click the DataLink to open in Mids" that wasn't working. I found another build that I was able to open.

[Omega Force]

Yeah, I can't get the DataLink to work either.  I'm always griping at cats to post the chunk so I have something the program can use.