Diablo 3 - Artisan Update, Beta Invites, No Achievements, Book of Cain, and PC Gamer

Dragon Soul Heroic Difficulty Unlocked - US First Kills
The Heroic mode is now unlocked in the US and Europe will follow shortly. Guilds who aren't banned started working hard to defeat the heroic versions of encounters and several bosses are already dead.


  • Blood Legion got the US first kill of Morchok, Warlord Zon'ozz, Yor'sahj the Unsleeping, and Hagara the Stormbinder.






Patch 4.3 Hotfixes: December 6
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
General
  • Transmogrified items should always lose their transmogrification when mailed.
  • The Darkmoon Firework no longer has a duration, is now holiday-bound, and requires Darkmoon Faire to be active.
  • Darkmoon Faire revelers who enter an off-limits area in ghost form should now be properly ported out.
  • Entangling Roots, Freeze, and Frost Nova should now properly break when the affected player takes damage while a damage absorption effect is also active.

Classes
Hunter (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
  • Kill Command should now always consume the Resistance is Futile! buff, regardless of whether the target has Hunter's Mark or not.
  • Reverted a bug fix that caused Bombardment to be consumed by the next Multi-Shot. Fixing this bug proved to be a significant dps loss, so Bombardment once again lasts for its full 6 second duration regardless of the number of Multi-Shot casts. The tooltip will be updated in a future patch to reflect that this change is intended.

Paladin (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
  • Divine Aegis, Ancestral Awakening, Ancestral Vigor, Holy Priest Mastery, Holy Paladin Mastery, and Living Seed now trigger properly based on pre-absorb healing, even if the triggering heal is fully absorbed.

Warrior (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
  • Deep Wounds should now be correctly activated by critical hits from Opportunity Strike, Raging Blow, Heroic Leap, and Intercept.
  • Using Pummel, modified by Gag Order, will now Silence the target for 3 seconds in addition to locking out the spell school for 4 seconds.
Dungeons & Raids
  • End Time
    • The trash preceeding Echo of Baine should now hit for less Fire damage.
  • Hour of Twilight
    • Flailing Tentacles now despawn shortly after they appear, and can no longer be attacked.

  • Well of Eternity
    • Players should no longer lose the Shadowcloak buff when a group member leaves, joins, or zones in or out of the instance.
    • Mannoroth
      • Magistrike Arc should no longer be activated by pet attacks, and now has a 100% chance of being activated after a 3 second cooldown.
      • Rogue Stealth and mage Invisibility are no longer broken when Doomguard Devastators land and become valid targets, or when other Demons spawn from the Nether Tear portal.

  • Dragon Soul
    • Accepting a Warlock summon while riding a drake taxi in Dragon Soul should now cancel the drake ride and port the player to the location of the summon.
    • Fall of Deathwing is now available via Raid Finder once you have completed Siege of Wyrmrest.
    • Players who have killed the final boss in one of the wings of Dragon soul via Raid Finder will be more likely to enter fresh instances on subsequent Raid Finder instances that week. This should make it easier to kill earlier bosses that they might have missed.
    • Yor'sahj the Unsleeping
      • The Aggro Radius has been properly adjusted for all difficulties of this encounter.
      • Slimes, Mana Voids, and Forgotten Ones have had their HP reduced by 20% on Raid Finder difficulty.
      • Pets cannot be summoned during the decent into this encounter.
    • Warlord Zon'ozz
      • Ball damage should now be splitting its total damage amongst all players nearby on Raid Finder difficulty.
      • Pets cannot be summoned during the decent into this encounter.
    • Ultraxion
      • Players should no longer find themselves in the Twilight Realm after Ultraxion has been defeated.
      • Essence of Dreams should strain CPUs less in 25-player raids. This buff will now activate once per second for each healer who has the buff, and the healing done by the effect will equal the amount of health healed by the healer within that one second window.
    • Spine of Deathwing
      • Corruption, Hideous Amalgamation, and Burning Tendons are now level 88, up from 87, and have had their health slightly increased.
    • Madness of Deathwing
      • Priests under the effect of Spirit of Redemption will now receive credit for defeating Deathwing as long as they were part of the encounter.
  • Temple of Ahn'Qiraj
    • The Prophet Skeram, the Illusions of The Prophet Skeram, Princess Yauj, Lord Kri, and Vem no longer grant reputation when killed.

  • Throne of the Tides
    • Lady Naz'jar
      • All of the creatures in the Lady Naz'jar gauntlet are now immune to mind control mechanics.

  • Zul'Gurub
    • High Priest Venoxis has been convinced to clean up after himself when his encounter is reset, and his venom puddles should disappear.
Items
  • Bracers of Flowing Serenity now have a +20 Intellect socket bonus that is properly applied when the gem requirement is met.
  • Foul Gift of the Demon Lord and Varo'then's Brooch should no longer be usable by players under the effects of crowd control spells.
  • All three Heart of Unliving trinkets now additionally provide a passive intellect bonus.
  • Mana Tide Totem now benefits from Heart of Unliving.
  • Pit Fighter and Master Pit Fighter now have more stamina.
  • The Moonwell Phial trinket buff shold no longer be disabled when the player enters combat.
  • The paladin tier-13 four-piece set bonus should now increase healing done by Holy Radiance by 5%, down from 20%.
  • The priest tier-13 two-piece set bonus should again trigger a 23-second Temporal Boon for Discipline priests, up from 20 seconds.

Quests and Creatures
  • While on the quest "Archival Purposes", players should now be able to open Elementium Gem Clusters.

Give the Gift of Warcraft
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
To prepare for the holidays, Great-Father Winter has massively buffed your gift-giving abilities. For a limited time, we’re offering epic savings of up to 75% on select World of Warcraft products through the online Blizzard Store:

  • WoW: Battle Chest for $5 (reg. $19.99)
  • Cataclysm for $20 (reg. $39.99)
  • Wrath of the Lich King for $10 (reg. $39.99)
  • Celestial Steed for $10 (reg. $25)
  • Pandaren Monk for $5 (reg. $10)


With these deals, there’s never been a better time to recruit a friend to World of Warcraft or hook up your guildmate with a new mount or pet. Click here to start shopping, but don’t delay; these offers end Monday, December 19, 2011.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Darkmoon Faire Items Are Too Expensive
Thanks everyone for your feedback. To hopefully clear up some of the confusion over time investment vs reward costs we've broken down exactly how many tickets you can obtain in a single Darkmoon Faire week. The design intent of the Darkmoon Faire is that it’s available for one week out of the month, and in that one week we expect you to be able to obtain a significant amount of tickets. To clarify the OP’s point of how long it would take to obtain an entire set of cosmetic gear, the math presented was incorrect, and it would in fact only take 4 Darkmoon Faire weeks to complete an entire set. That’s of course still no quick task, and the intent is not for it to be. There are plenty of rewards that can be obtained in one or two weeks of the Darkmoon Faire, but we expect that an entire set will take a few events to obtain. Here’s the breakdown:

Tickets Per Faire

  • Dungeon: 40
  • Heroic Dungeon: 15
  • Raid: 10
  • Tradeskill quests (primary): 8
  • Tradeskill quests (secondary): 12
  • BGs: 15
  • Kill Quest: 10
  • Mini Games*: 35

Total Tickets per faire: 145

* 5 mini games, available daily: 7*5=35

As an example, here are some options that you can choose over the course of two Darkmoon Faires (2 weeks over 2 months):

  • Prioritizing mounts/pets: 1 mount + 1 pet, with 20 tickets to spare
  • Prioritizing pets: 3 pets, 20 tickets to spare
  • Prioritizing cosmetic armor: 4 pieces of cosmetic armor, with 30 tickets to spare
  • Prioritizing heirloom armor: 1 piece of heirloom armor + 1 heirloom weapon, with 20 tickets to spare

Keeping all of this in mind we don’t feel the current ticket acquisition rates or reward costs are out of hand, but we’re interested to hear your thoughts after reading this information and considering the longevity of the content, as well as the ‘once a month’ format of the faire. We’ll be continually evaluating it, and we’re looking forward to incorporating more goodies to be won, and more activities to the faire, in the future.

We're not attempting to recreate the time investment that was originally seen to obtain these items when they were relevant. They exist for transmogrification/customization choices, not necessary power increase requirements to be able to progress your character.

If they were part of a progression path we'd definitely look at the acquisition rates and standardize them, but as they're show-off pieces the acquisition rate is usually gated a little higher so that the appeal and worth of showing them off remains high.

Just to clarify one point, the quest drops that happen in the dungeons/raids/BG’s happen all the time, even if the faire isn’t in town. Think of it sort of like the Darkmoon Card redemptions. You’re out playing all month, while you’re doing stuff you’re getting chances at the items, then when the faire is in town you turn it all in. (It’s also worth pointing out that the turn-in items aren’t soulbound, so just like the cards I’d expect some people to farm them just to put them up on the AH.)

It’s really just this first week and appearance of the faire that’s off because the Darkmoon Adventurer's Guide wasn’t available for the 3 weeks prior. When it rolls around next month there should be better feel for how the whole system and ticket acquisition rate feels.

Why is there a perception both within the community and from the developers that there should be a lower acquisition rate for people who want to customize how their character looks compared to those who simply want higher stats?

It's a simple fact of the intent behind the vanity rewards and people's desires to customize their appearance, and do so in a way that they are unique from other players. To be unique, or close to it, the desire is to have something to show off that no one else has, or at least very few people have. Secondarily (or in some cases primarily) the appeal of the item can simply be due to some very difficult-to-reach goal. "Look at me, I did X". To achieve that from our side there needs to be a high barrier of entry to obtain the item or else everyone can get it, the item loses its special 'show off' value, and as a way to be unique from other players it has completely lost all value. This isn't just a dress up game, the items have significance attached to how they were obtained. Some things, like pets or mounts, have alternate values through achievements and such though, so things can get a bit more complex.

Obviously it doesn't apply to everything, there are nigh unlimited amounts of ways now to customize your character with transmogrification. The vast majority of customization options don't require a ton of time investment. But if you look at these items in the Darkmoon Faire, or the mounts or pets that are hard to obtain, and you really want them to dress up and show off, I think that's proving the exact point of why they're difficult to obtain.

I'll bring up the sparkle ponies. When they came out everyone wanted one and sure enough on the first day the sky was filled with sparkles, and ponies, but now days you rarely see anyone bring theirs out because they became too common. You see people, usually, on their rarest/most difficult to obtain mount, because that's the satisfaction of obtaining these things and then displaying them in a social setting. "This is who I am, and this is what I've achieved."

Hold on, hold on. Aren't you guys the people who have, for years, told everyone who complained about other players getting rare things easier after time had past that they shouldn't complain because, after all, they had those things and got to enjoy them longer than players who are now able to get the items far easier?

Time changes all. We're not going to be able to keep everything in the game relatively "difficult" to obtain from now until forever. There are going to be game changes or a progression of player power that simply makes some of their acquisitions easier. We can try to build in gates, such as lockouts and timers to help mitigate them, but it's very possible that at some point in the future the Darkmoon Faire items become substantially easier to obtain through some change.

As time goes on more and more people will naturally be able to achieve these desired 'show off' items, and so as time goes on it makes sense to continue to introduce new ones. Being the first, or one of a few is awesome, but unless we do something like the AQ gong event again (never) we're not going to literally gate items to a specific number of people.

Such is the reality of a constantly moving and evolving game. It's a big reason why we use words and phrases like "currently" and "at this time", we can't speak to how we're going to be thinking or designing the game a year from now, or what items will be available and at what cost.

I understand the intent of obtaining items to customize your character, and I would absolutely argue that it is not devoid of wanting to appear special/unique to those around you. World of Warcraft is not a strict 'roleplaying' game, in that the majority of focus is on cooperative or competitive group-based content, and much of that is to obtain and earn prestige through displayable rewards. Because of that our intent is largely going to be to create methods through which that prestige can be obtained. That doesn't mean everything has to be some kind of crazy long time investment, and it's a fact that World of Warcraft asks very little in that regard for 98% of the content, but surely there needs to be some that are very difficult to appease those who are looking for it. I would also argue the Darkmoon Faire and its items are not one of them, though, and do not ask an out-of-the-ordinary amount of dedication to obtain the rewards.

We were not requesting the items be very easy to obtain, we're requesting that the time it takes to acquire such items be reduced by adding 2-3 more tokens to the daily rewards.


We're more than willing to take feedback on how the rates could be adjusted, but at this time we feel four months to obtain a full set seems about right, should you choose to not seek them out through other means (trading/AH). Of course should we decide to make any adjustments we'll let you know as soon as we do.

This, it seems to me, is related to the assumption on Blizz's part that the only "valid" purpose for Transmogrification is prestige-- to show off the armor we earned, preferrably in an attempt to look more powerful and awesome. But many of us are not in fact motivated by that-- we're motivated by the desire to customize our characters to make them look the way we want, according to our own feel for our characters-- whether that feel is "powerful and awesome" or "silly and quaint".

No and I apologize for using that phrase, my intent wasn't to devalue character customization it was to make a point that the items don't just exist in the world for baseless customization, but they're either obtained by killing a boss, being great in the Arena's, or even putting time into gathering enough tickets so you can look awesome.

Like I said before there are tons of customization options that are very, very easy to obtain, and the combinations and customization potential is really insane. But, there are going to be restrictions and requirements to get what's considered the higher prestige items because that's in no small part what makes them prestigious, and drives people to obtain them. I understand that may not be why you play the game, but it is why the majority of people play, and the majority of the content that's developed.

We're in the infancy of transmogrification though, and so I don't think we really have any idea where we'll be six months or a year from now and the various venues we could have available to obtain pure-customization options for your character. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

PvP Season 11 Begins
The second PvP season of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is now underway! Matchmaking (MMR), Team, and Personal Ratings have been reset and players are once again able to compete in level-85 Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds for the best PvP gear, items, and titles. The 4000-point Honor cap has been restored, and Season 11 Conquest Point and improved Honor Point rewards are now available for purchase.

Players who were in the top teams from each battlegroup at the end of Season 10 will also be receiving their end-of-season rewards shortly. These include Arena- and Rated Battleground-specific titles and, for players who have earned the rank of gladiator, the Ruthless Gladiator’s Twilight Drake.

Prepare yourselves for battle as the bloody struggle between the Horde and the Alliance continues. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Expand the LFR Loot System to all 5 Man Instances
I just wanted to let you all know that we would indeed like to expand this loot system to 5-player dungeons as well. However this is something we are looking into for the future, but we would like to see how the loot system holds up in a raiding environment first. So hopefully we may introduce this to 5 man dungeons soon™ (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

MMO-Champion T-Shirts from J!NX
While you're doing your Holiday shopping, be sure to visit J!NX's Curse Store to check out all the Curse J!NX swag available! While you’re shopping for your loved ones, be sure to pick up a little something for yourself, since J!NX is currently offering free shipping to customers who buy any three shirts, hats, and hoodies. Just use the code FREESHIP2011 at checkout!





Trading Card Game Art Gallery Update
The Trading Card game art gallery has been updated with ten new pieces.



This article was originally published in forum thread: Dragon Soul US First Kills, December 6 Hotfixes, Blizzard Sales, Blue Posts, TCG Art started by chaud View original post
Comments 169 Comments
  1. Frozenbeef's Avatar
    it's not world first it's us first :P imagine it like strand of the ancients...the alliance (usa) attack first and manage to get to the titan relic in 1minute that doesn't mean the alliance(usa) wins the entire strand of the ancients match, it just means the horde (eu) has to get to the titan relic in under 1minute...if they do get to it in under a minute the horde win SOTA(world first) but if they don't get there in under a minute then the alliance win SOTA(world first)
  1. soicakes's Avatar
    I thought Exodus got a banhammer? How is it that some of their mains (Kaywarrior and Taeyeon, etc) were able to get heroic kills? I can't picture them not being a part of the exploit crew.
  1. mmoc8d1df16656's Avatar
    I don't know why people are arguing with US people about world firsts. They call their major baseball tournament the World Series, yet there has never been a non US team in it. Congratulations, you are the best at baseball & american football IN THE WORLD!

    The rest of the world isn't going to win an argument with US over world firsts, until they come to terms with things like fair competition, equal participation and starting the race at the same time on the same day.

    All else is simply feeding of trolls.
  1. zrankfappa's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Jinna View Post
    I don't know why people are arguing with US people about world firsts. They call their major baseball tournament the World Series, yet there has never been a non US team in it. Congratulations, you are the best at baseball & american football IN THE WORLD!

    The rest of the world isn't going to win an argument with US over world firsts, until they come to terms with things like fair competition, equal participation and starting the race at the same time on the same day.

    All else is simply feeding of trolls.
    All the best players in the world, play in the MLB, thus it is the pinnacle of baseball competition in the world. Calling it the world series isn't a stretch.
  1. mmocf60c96fb83's Avatar
    For the "world first" talk... I think someone.. maybe even mmo .. should/could make a special clock that puts the difference between US going live and EU going live.. to calculate the time competatively... Jus an example... US Blood Legion (World First +8hrs from EU launch..) or something like that... then wait 8 hours from the EU launch.. and if at that exact time (8 hours after the launch) .. look at the EU guilds.. if a EU guild kills the boss 8+ .. then obv US has the REAL world first.. the competative one.. if the EU guild kills the boss under 8 hrs.. then EU guild wins the REAL world first... Simply adding the hour difference in the tables.. would make the "Competative" Calendar more accurate.. obv US guilds will always get atleast the first boss world firsts.. cuz they have a go at the boss faster... but not the Competative world first... sry for my bad english...
  1. mmoc31a6eca749's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Jinna View Post
    Pulleeeezee. Don't you realise that the LFR bug was intentionally left in so that top guilds would abuse it, get banned, and be forced to put off progression for a full week, so that the world first Deathwing would still be in contention while SWTOR is released? The slashing of prices confirm this! The whole thing is a conspiracy I tell you.

    If not for the bug, Paragon and Ensidia would kill Deathwing this week and then quit WoW for SWTOR, true story.
    Really? You wouldn't think that guilds like those signed up for the annual pass for the guaranteed MoP Beta and thus guaranteed 'head start' practicing whichever raid 5.0 starts with?

    Even if they do 'quit' for SWTOR, they'd be contractually obligated to pay for a year :P Blizzard still laughs.
  1. mmoc8d1df16656's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Valleera View Post
    Really? You wouldn't think that guilds like those signed up for the annual pass for the guaranteed MoP Beta and thus guaranteed 'head start' practicing whichever raid 5.0 starts with?

    Even if they do 'quit' for SWTOR, they'd be contractually obligated to pay for a year :P Blizzard still laughs.
    Don't get me started on the Yearly pass, because it's clearly another plan for them to tie in players until... the Titan Beta. Are you prepared for you next dose of virtual CRACK!?

    This time around if you sign up for the year pass, you get Diablo 3 and guaranteed access to the MoP Beta, in Q4 2012, they will announce that if you sign up for another year, you will get access to the Titan beta (which will be launched in Q4 2013).

    Yeah, Blizzard will be laughing alright.
  1. Pavidus's Avatar
    While I agree that this is a US First and not a World First, the EU has no problem handing "World First" credit to EU Firsts that get a headstart on content. They have done it countless times in the past.I'm sick and tired of seeing this pathetic double standard. Lets get some god damn consistancy going, please.
  1. petre's Avatar
    Finally, Blood Legion gets the recognition they deserve. BL would probably have other world firsts if the other guilds didn't use exploits and cheats in previous tiers, they know they can't compete without them. About time there was a level playing field. And yes, it's World First. If you want first crack at the content, you play where it's released first. Those claiming otherwise, I suppose you'll reserve granting of the title "World First" until 2 years later when China finally gets the content approved and has their crack at it? Yeah, didn't think so.
  1. Nigyl's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Jinna View Post
    I don't know why people are arguing with US people about world firsts. They call their major baseball tournament the World Series, yet there has never been a non US team in it. Congratulations, you are the best at baseball & american football IN THE WORLD!
    Toronto is not in the United States. They won the 1992 and 1993 World Series.
  1. F-Minus's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Pavidus View Post
    While I agree that this is a US First and not a World First, the EU has no problem handing "World First" credit to EU Firsts that get a headstart on content. They have done it countless times in the past.I'm sick and tired of seeing this pathetic double standard. Lets get some god damn consistancy going, please.
    Would bare relevance if US maintenance wouldn't be Tuesdays and EU maintenance Wednesdays, so headstart for US not EU (i'm pretty sure 99.9% of the time). I have no clue when Taiwan and China have their maintenance schedules tho.
  1. bas's Avatar
    WoW guilds are clearing stuff really fast this time Exodus already got 5/8 HC according to WoW progress
  1. Grizzly Willy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nah View Post
    Patch 4.3 Hotfixes: December 6
    Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
    General
    • Transmogrified items should always lose their transmogrification when mailed.
    Wow, so it was a bug that you could sometimes mail transmogrified heirlooms, not a bug that it sometimes didn't work? I wasted nearly 1500g trying to transmog my BoA helms and cloaks, since they vendor for 375g/300g each. And here I was hoping they were finally letting us show off on our lowbie alts some of the things we had earned on our mains. GG
    If I recall correctly, they never intended for you to be able to send trasmogrified gear through the mail. Way to get mad at something that wasn't promised?
  1. mmoc8d1df16656's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nigyl View Post
    Toronto is not in the United States. They won the 1992 and 1993 World Series.
    OH, in that case it TOTALLY invalidates my point.
  1. mmocc7076034c2's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by petre View Post
    Finally, Blood Legion gets the recognition they deserve. BL would probably have other world firsts if the other guilds didn't use exploits and cheats in previous tiers, they know they can't compete without them. About time there was a level playing field. And yes, it's World First. If you want first crack at the content, you play where it's released first. Those claiming otherwise, I suppose you'll reserve granting of the title "World First" until 2 years later when China finally gets the content approved and has their crack at it? Yeah, didn't think so.
    That is pretty wrong and dangerous. Uninformed people like you are always dangerous, you guys try to spread your opinion based on misinformation. BL used an exploit on this years Blizzcons Live Raid (Mage died, because Beth tilac was fixed on Blizzcon).

    Every Guild, who killed Atramedes in the first weeks used an exploit, because he wasn´t killable without using an exploit. There are many more examples...

    And same for you World First opinion, just stop spreading it, please!
  1. Inexxa's Avatar
    It was a world first but for the sake of the competition it ain't the fastest kill in the world yet until EU/Other countries in the world get to take part. Anyway this content seems turd.
  1. Gray_Matter's Avatar
    Am I the only one a bit peeved that the US gets 75% off and EU gets 25% off?
  1. scvd's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Gray_Matter View Post
    Am I the only one a bit peeved that the US gets 75% off and EU gets 25% off?
    No

    10char
  1. Gray_Matter's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by scvd View Post
    No

    10char
    I have 2 accounts. One has cata and the other one is just a battle chest. If we had the US discounts I would have upgraded the second one all of the way to cata. Right now, it's cheaper to get SWTOR then it is upgrade.
  1. melodramocracy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Gilian View Post
    Yes it's a world first and it counts as one. But it means nothing with all the competition out of the race. They are still not better than the other guilds. So sorry that I offended your favorite guild's world firsts.
    Lets look at the Tour de France, a team-focused race where doping, and thusly getting busted for it, is probably more frequent than any other pro sport ...

    If a favorite or leader is caught doping while the race is going on, and removed from competition, it doesn't soil the victory for the person who winds up winning. If you cheat, and get caught, you simply are no longer "competition".

    You'll just have to accept the fact that for this tier, the guilds who were banned aren't considered the best players, by their very own actions. 5.0 will probably bring a different picture.

    ---------- Post added 2011-12-07 at 12:32 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by petre View Post
    And yes, it's World First. If you want first crack at the content, you play where it's released first.
    This is a pretty dumb statement. World first rankings should start from the minute servers are up until the first kill of boss in that particular area of the world.

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