TheBookNerd

I am currently ranked #3 in the leaderboards for a particular song. Yet I do not have gold stars. I have five stars, but they are not gold. Is this unusual? Has anyone experienced problems with not getting gold stars?

For comparison, I have gold stars in Journey's "Don't Stop Believing," and I am ranked #72.

Jackpot question: When you guys activate the Jackpot, do you stick to one lane so that you won't mess up? Or do you switch between lanes to continue getting white notes and prolong the Jackpot. I have tried the latter, but I always mess up and lose the jackpot.

bibamatt: Gamertag is The Book Nerd.

I don't know when it began.

It had to have been sometime in early 2011 when I discovered Matt "Chainsaw" Chaney's catchy, pastry-inspired ditty from 'Splosion Man was available on the Rock Band network. "Donuts, Go Nuts" had found some novelty popularity in my house, particularly by my children, for its repetitious ukulele riffs and references to a wide variety of donut-like goodies. For several days early that year, we all walked around the house singing, whistling, humming the tune. I'm sure I played it a couple of times in Rock Band 2 or something. And then at some point I forgot about it...

Enter Rock Band: Blitz.

Harmonix's latest offering is a low-key take on the burnt out plastic instrument genre, but with a heavy dose of leaderboards and quite public mockery of friends (also known as "pathetic losers" who have "no chance in hell" of beating "my epic high score"). Fully couch-playable with just a simple gamepad controller, Blitz imports your old Rock Band tracks into a new--but old-school--rhythm game format. There is also an optimization component, with players choosing from a variety of power ups to increase their scores in different ways.

But it didn't really catch on for me initially. Sure, I enjoyed getting some use out of the few Rock Band tracks I had downloaded in years past. It was nice to take a break from Skyrim and a couple of shooters I had been playing for months now. And the graphic design was nice. But I didn't really get hooked.

Then I saw "Donuts, Go Nuts."

"Cool," I thought. "Let's see how this one plays."

I did okay, initially. I think my first score was somewhere around 80,000, which probably put me in the top 100 on the leaderboards. No biggie.

"That seemed like a pretty simple song," I thought. "I bet I could do better."

Sure enough, the next time around, I placed at #15. FIFTEEN. In the WORLD. I've never been that highly ranked at anything. Ever. Forget how many people have actually attempted the song. Forget how easy or straightforward the melody may be. Forget that there is not even a piano part. Toss all of that crap out the window because goddammit I WAS FIFTEENTH ON A LEADERBOARD FOR A VIDEO GAME.

*blink, blink*

"I could totally get to Number One."

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That was three days ago. I am currently ranked sixth in the world at "Donuts, Go Nuts" on Rock Band: Blitz.

I have probably logged a good six or seven hours just playing that one song.

When I turn on the XBox, my family leaves the room.

My three-year-old can now recite the lyrics from beginning to end. (Yes, even the part about croquembouches. I don't even know what those are.)

It's Friday. And all I can think about is playing more Rock Band: Blitz, singing along with Chainsaw into the wee hours of the morning, crushing my controller when I fail to break the high score...

...and maybe, just maybe, reaching that Number One spot.

Currently #15 on "Donuts, Go Nuts" by Matt "Chainsaw" Chaney (XBox).

And I WILL be Number One. Oh yes, I will.

I'm surprised at all of the people choosing Road Rage over Jackpot. I haven't used it that much, but Road Rage never seemed to be all that useful. Is there some trick to using it? Jackpot, while difficult to nail the 100% requirement sometimes, really pays off when you get it right. Just wondering why the strong preference for Road Rage.

Xbox 360 Gamertag: The Book Nerd

I play anything, really. But since this is the first RB game I've really gotten into, I don't own a lot of DLC tracks.

Dungeon Defenders.

I and my entire family are shamelessly addicted to Dungeon Defenders on the XBox 360. I've easily put in 150+ hours. And yet I feel like I've barely scratched the surface. This is great, of course, because I'm getting a ton of value out of the game in exchange for very little money (in my opinion). However, it's also a bit frustrating, as I feel I should be progressing further based on the amount of time and attention I've put into the game. I'd appreciate the input from some of your veterans on what I may be doing wrong.

After leveling my first character to 70, I attempted some of the campaign missions and challenges on Hard and Insane. It was immediately evident that I didn't stand a chance. So I started reading some character build guides and some level guides online. I realized that, aside from just the character's level, I had to allocate skill points to certain areas and effectively "specialize" my characters. So I began building and leveling new characters. Here is what I have so far. (Apologies for not including actual stat numbers, but I am at the office away from my XBox.)

Tower Monk: All points in Aura Health/Damage/Radius/Rate with leftovers in Hero Speed/Casting

Tower Apprentice: All points in Tower Health/Damage/Radius/Rate with leftovers in Hero Speed/Casting

Tower Huntress: All points in Trap Health/Damage/Radius/Rate/ with leftovers in Hero Speed/Casting

Tower Squire: All points in Defense Health/Damage/Radius/Rate with leftovers in Hero Speed/Casting

DPS Squire: All points in Hero Health/Damage/Speed/Blood Rage with leftovers in Circular Slice

DPS Huntress: All points in Hero Health/Damage/Speed/Piercing Shot with leftovers in Casting

(NOTE: "All points" obviously means a max of 70 hero points, as the XBox version has not been patched to increase this.)

So there I have six level 70 characters with points properly allocated to their specialities. I have been able to solo many of the campaign missions on insane, eventually hitting a wall with Ramparts. After that, I start having trouble with the later campaign missions and bonus/DLC missions on insane. Also, I cannot solo any of the challenges on Hard or Insane. I have tried partnering up with my wife and/or kids for two-, three-, and four-player coop on these, but the added enemies and increased enemy health make it impossible.

I have NOT yet started to allocate appropriate points strategically in my hero items (armor, pets, weapons). This, I feel, is maybe my biggest failing. But I'm not really sure where my item points should go. Should I use the items just to further increase my character's specializations? For instance, should I just level up all of the items for the DSP Huntress to further increase her Hero Health/Damage??

How important is elemental resistance? I understand that a lot of people put high stock in this area, but it seems like for the mana I spend I get very little return on the investment.

Finally, what is the secret to beating the challenges on Insane? I don't want to simply watch a YouTube video and then repeat what I see there. I'd like to have one or two character builds that are tough enough to experiment and find my own way through these. So what else do I need to focus on?

I realize this is a lot of questions. But after reading through other forums, it's obvious that the DunDef community is very willing to help. So I'd appreciate some of you experts giving me your thoughts. Thanks a bunch, guys!

-Book

I've been a GB member since the beginning, but I'm only just now getting into features like editing Wikis, using the blogs, etc. So forgive me if this is a relatively naive question to ask. I'm just looking for clarification on how these things are handled.

On a wiki entry for a game that was released on multiple platforms, how does one denote a feature of the game that is only available or has only been released on one platform? Example: For Dungeon Defenders, there are now FIVE difficulty settings on the PC version since the last update. But the console versions feature only the original four difficulty settings. The current wiki for that game notes as a feature "four difficulty settings." So would one simply add the fifth difficulty and note parenthetically that it is only on the PC?

Apologies if this is WAY too detailed a question. Feel free to tell me to shut the hell up and just do it...

-Book