Flyingpiggies
Legend
FP’s 19 Shadow Priest Guide for wannabe CC mages!
Table of Contents
1. Why a 19 Shadow Priest?
2. Play-style overview!
3. Races!
4. Gear!
5. Enchants!
6. Talents!
7. Professions
8. Spell Tricks and “Combos”!
9. Other neat tricks!
10. 1v1 Situations!
11. “Teamfight” Situations!
12. Class Matchups!
13. Consumables!
14. Macros!
Part 1: Why a shadow priest?
Playing a shadow priest is a whole lot of fun if topping meters isn’t your primary goal. I may lose a few people on this one, but playing a shadow priest is a lot like playing a support champion in League of Legends; taking a life is fun and all, but saving an ally when they’re at ~30 hp is thrilling! What I find to be the most fun of all, though, is bringing melee to tears with my slows, fears, bombs, and in my case, VOID TENDRILS! With a successful CC combo on a melee, you can keep them off of you for about 12 seconds, every 25. In short, shadow priests are ludicrously fun because, though they have, in my opinion, the most expansive arsenal in the bracket, they’re still a bit of a challenge.
Part 2: Play-style Overview!
In my opinion, there are 3 viable shadow priest playstyles; the offensive healer (much like a disc priest), the defensive ranged, and ye olde CC spammer.
Offensive healer: As aforementioned, this is a more challenging version of a disc priest. You’ll be healing your FC almost exclusively, bubbling the enemy team’s kill target, and peeling for your whole team. Worse than a disc priest in nearly every manner besides CC. Be ready to down some mana potions as well.
Defensive Ranged: This spec can be pretty much explained in a priority rotation; DoT everything>Bubble yourself or your FC, depending on who needs it more>Mind Flay kill target/ attacking melee>CC enemy healers when on O, CC enemy DPS/healers on O when defending>Bubble teammates if both you and your FC are topped off>Save your damn mana>Heal spam. This suggests that your main goal is pumping DPS into the enemy FC/healers, peeling for your team, and whittling down the entire enemy O/D, since there is little to no AoE healing in the bracket. This “sub-spec” can be compared to a Cata Affliction Warlock with less damage and more utility spells. My personal favorite
CC spammer: This is the spec for a person who enjoys the playstyle of a CC mage, and the utility of a disc priest (Note: not the heals, just the utility), or somebody who thinks healing is overrated and has a grudge against anything that can do anything better than they can. For this, you will be stacking stamina, and fearing/slowing everything in sight. Not much more to say, except that this pairs well with abilities with “/y STEREOTYPICAL TERRORIST PHRASE” macro’d onto them.
Part 3: Races!
For the most part, every race is viable, some slightly more than others.
Alliance:
Human: Opens up and extra trinket slot, so that you can kill more things!
Dwarf: Defensive CD allows you to kill more things!
Night Elf: Get out of jail free button allows you to kill more things!
Gnome: Natural casters with an extra escape; 2 things that let you kill more things!
Draenei: The extra hit allows for more intellect, haste and crit, and along with their heal, I’d say Draenei are the best at purely killing things as shadow priests.
Worgen: Eliminates the need for some of your essential speed pots, and more crit is always fun… FOR KILLING THINGS!
Pandaren: A big ol’ CC, fabulous looks and decent base stamina? Great! If you don’t intend on dying, you should grab some +6 spirit +6 stamina food, as the food buff makes it a 3 stamina for 12 spirit trade as opposed to rum.
Horde:
Troll: Passive CC reduction and health regen, and an offensive CD for killing things!
Forsaken: Passive life steal procs, and a trinket for most CC’s in the bracket, so you can live to see another day, and kill many more things on that day.
Tauren: Extra health, and an AoE stun, for setting up kills on things!
Blood Elf: AoE silence that restores mana. When you can silence healers, it’s much easier to kill things!
Goblin: Extra haste and a CD that can help with positioning, escaping, or killing things!
Author Recommended:
Offensive healer: Human/Blood Elf
Defensive Ranged: Draenei/Forsaken
CC spammer: Human/Pandaren/Tauren
Part 4: Gear!
19 shadow priest gear is complicated, as it’s very situational, so to fix this, I’ll be showing the 3 best options (from best to worst) for every gear slot for every play type.
Offensive Healer
Head: Tattered Dreadmist Mask/Lucky Fishing Hat/Green-tinted Goggles
Neck: Thick Bronze Necklace/Voice Amplification Modifier/Scout or Sentinel’s Medallion
Shoulders: Exquisite Sunderseer Mantle/Tattered Dreadmist Mantle/Talbar Mantle (for Swag purposes only)
Cloak: Tumultuous Cloak of Stamina/ Spidersilk Cloak/ Ancient Bloodmoon Cloak
Bracers: Mindthrust Bracers/Hovel Digger Bands (if not hit-capped)/Cuffs of the Black Elements (or their GF’ed equivalent)
Gloves: Jutebraid Gloves (if you’ve got them)/Serpent Gloves (Gold-fleckeds work too)/Magefist gloves
Belt: Enumerated Wrap of the Eagle/Keller’s Girdle/ …of the Vision
Pants: Tattered Dreadmist Leggings/Godfrey’s Britches/Darkweave Breeches
Feet: Spidersilk Boots/Merger Boots or Conspirator’s Slippers/Slippers of Unturned Loyalties
Ring 1: Seal of Argas/Stillwater’s Signet/Lavishly Jeweled Ring
Ring 2: Seal of Argas/Seal of Sylvanas/Seal of Wrynn
Trinket 1: Arena Grand Master/Discerning Eye of the Beast/Swift Hand of Justice
Trinket 2: Inherited Insignia/Insignia/Arena Grand Master
Main Hand: Blessed Hammer of Grace/Grand Staff of Jordan/Devout Aurastone Hammer
Offhand (If you decide to use one): Furbolg Medicine Pouch/Eerie Stable Lantern/Mystic Tome
Defensive Ranged
This set is very similar to the set above it, so I’m only going to list additional options.
Cloak: Tumultuous Cloak of the Sorcerer
Boots: If you have access to them, Walking Boots are optimal
Trinket 2: Inherited Insignia/Discerning Eye of the Beast/Arena Grand Master
Main Hand: Devout Aurastone Hammer/Grand Staff of Jordan/Blessed Hammer of Grace
Offhand: Mystic Tome/Eerie Stable Lantern/Furbolg Medicine Pouch
CC spammer
Your best bet is finding a good CC mage armory, or copying your CC mage’s gear if you’ve got one. This is very preferential.
Part 5: Enchants!
I’m only going to list 1-3 offensive and defensive enchants, and, much like the gear section, I’m leaving it to you to get hit-capped.
Cloak: +5 resists if you have it, +70 armor if you don’t
Chest: +100 hp, +100 mana, or +4 all stats. Very preferential
Bracers: +15 spell power, +9 stamina
Gloves: +16 spell power, +20 shadow spell power, +10 haste
Legs: +16 armor, +24 if on Darkweaves
Feet: +7 stamina, Minor speed, or +5 hit if you need to be hit capped
Weapon: +22 intellect, +30 spell power is usable, but provides less crit
Part 6: Talents!
Psyfiend: Only take as an offensive healer, for the sake of dampening damage. Not to be used as an urgent peel, as that little fiend is kinda stupid.
Void Tendrils: AMAZING trinket-baiter against PuGs, still and instant, AoE Entangling Roots if not trinketed. I LOVE this ability.
Dominate Mind: This spell will be utterly useless when not in skilled hands until patch 5.2, when its cast time is being reduced by 0.7 seconds. I will edit this once 5.2 launches, and I can test it in an actual bg.
Part 7: Professions
Engineering: I think Engineering makes for a potent CC-bot, and should be taken if you intend on coordinating with your team.
Skinning: Skinning is somewhat usable, but only if you’re building for crit, which requires a bit more “skill” in the form of not clipping DoTs, or refreshing them immediately after a tick.
Herbalism: The heal from Lifeblood isn’t amazing, and the haste is only good if you’re willing to refresh all of your DoTs immediately after you use it.
Mining: It’s 70 health. That’s all. If that sounds good to you, awesome! If not, I can sympathise.
Part 8: Spell Tricks and “Combos”!
This section WILL include talents, so don’t expect to be able to use them all at once.
Void Tendrils -> Psychic Scream
If you’re at low health, and being chased by melee, use Void Tendrils, turn your camera, and Psychic Scream when any of the melee trinket
Shadow Word: Pain -> Psychic Scream
This seems counter-intuitive, but if timed correctly, your target will stay feared until at least the third tick of your DoT, as the first one will be applied before the fear. This allows you to not only deal more damage, but actually raise the time your target is feared for if they’ve already been DoTted.
Mind Flay Juke!
If a rogue is coming closer to you to kick you while you’re healing yourself or an ally, use the macro I will post in the macro section of this guide to cancel your Flash Heal, start casting Mind Flay, and get you locked out of shadow as opposed to Holy!
If you have any more ideas, let me know in the comments!
Part 9: Other Neat Tricks!
2 tricks to help in landing a successful Fear/Void Tendrils:
1) Use a Speed Potion! This will let you fear enemies INTO your team, instead of away from the fight, generally leading glass cannon classes to their death
2) Face the enemy at a 90 degree angle, and strafe in to fear or use tendrils. It really messes with people who play zoomed in, or without name-plates enabled
A trick for every healer: Create mouse-over macros for your heals, and place the team frames near your character; it allows you to heal anybody without having to locate them (provided they’re in range), and allowing you to see what’s going on around you.
Part 10: 1v1 situations
Before you read the rest of this, know that your best option is always to run to your team, with very few exceptions.
Against classes with full health: Run!
Against classes with ¾ health: DoT them, and run!
Against classes with ½ health: DoT Ranged, DoT and Mind Flay spam melee, unless you see help coming for them.
Against classes with ¼ health: Kill ‘em! You can probably do it unless a stealthie is nearby to stain the ground with priest blood.
Part 11: Teamfights
In an equal fight: DoT everything and start healing everybody until an enemy falls below 50% hp, which is when you start Mind Flaying them. In situations like this, it’s best to have your “Toggle all Nameplates” bound to something you can hit easily.
When undermanned: Go into healbot mode, and fearbot mode if the enemy team is “clustered” together.
When overmanned: Go ahead and roll your face on you keyboard, because you’re almost useless when there isn’t a place for CC or less-than-average damage.
Part 12: Class Matchups!
Druids: They will out-heal you, and you will die. Sucks, I know.
Hunters: Fear the pets, and unload damage. Unless they’ve got any cooldowns, your bubbles and the occasional heal will be able to keep you topped off.
Mages: Bubble yourself and unload damage. If they blink, renew the Mind Flay slow, and chase by pressing Mind Flay, letting it tick, and chasing more.
Monks: DoT them up and engage, running won’t get you anywhere unless the enemy is CC’ed.
Paladins: DoT them and run. Be sure to keep renewing the Mind Flay slow, and run towards your GY.
Priests: Unless you’re both Shadow, grab something to eat, because that matchup will take HOURS.
Rogues: DoT them, CC them, and Min Flay them. That should kill them eventually, or at least save your life.
Shamans: Smack them up! It’s not like they can actually hurt you.
Warlocks: DoT them while they DoT you. The two of you have the same capabilities, except, you can heal the extra damage they have on you and then absorb some more.
Warriors: Save a fear and Roots for their charge(s), and DoT them. As long as you stay between 5 and 8 yards from them, you should be able to run to safety.
Part 13: Consumables!
Potions:
Lesser Mana Potion
Speed Potion/Molotov Cocktail
Elixirs:
Strong Troll’s Blood Elixir (Guardian)
Elixir of Wisdom (Battle)
Elixir of Minor Accuracy (0.5-10g every time you rezz for an instant hit cap)(Battle)
Bandages:
Heavy Runecloth Bandage
Runecloth Bandage (Heals you to full, but slower)
Food & Drink
Rumsey Rum Black Label
Halaani Whiskey
Raptor Punch
Venison Steak/Goblin Deviled Clams/Murloc Fin Soup/Redridge Goulash/Lean Wolf Steak, etc.(Best for Pandaren)
Other:
Minor Wizard Oil
Bloodthistle (BE only)
Scrying Roguestone
Part 14: Macros!
Mind Flay Juke:
This one is challenging, because by the time your GCD expires, the cast will be very close to done, so any addons with GCD timers are useful with this. This also serves as any normal stopcast macro, and it’s a mouseover Mind Flay.
Personal Bubble:
It’s a very rudimentary macro that will save your life many a time.
If you have any more suggestions or feedback for any part of this guide, feel free to comment or message me!
Table of Contents
1. Why a 19 Shadow Priest?
2. Play-style overview!
3. Races!
4. Gear!
5. Enchants!
6. Talents!
7. Professions
8. Spell Tricks and “Combos”!
9. Other neat tricks!
10. 1v1 Situations!
11. “Teamfight” Situations!
12. Class Matchups!
13. Consumables!
14. Macros!
Part 1: Why a shadow priest?
Playing a shadow priest is a whole lot of fun if topping meters isn’t your primary goal. I may lose a few people on this one, but playing a shadow priest is a lot like playing a support champion in League of Legends; taking a life is fun and all, but saving an ally when they’re at ~30 hp is thrilling! What I find to be the most fun of all, though, is bringing melee to tears with my slows, fears, bombs, and in my case, VOID TENDRILS! With a successful CC combo on a melee, you can keep them off of you for about 12 seconds, every 25. In short, shadow priests are ludicrously fun because, though they have, in my opinion, the most expansive arsenal in the bracket, they’re still a bit of a challenge.
Part 2: Play-style Overview!
In my opinion, there are 3 viable shadow priest playstyles; the offensive healer (much like a disc priest), the defensive ranged, and ye olde CC spammer.
Offensive healer: As aforementioned, this is a more challenging version of a disc priest. You’ll be healing your FC almost exclusively, bubbling the enemy team’s kill target, and peeling for your whole team. Worse than a disc priest in nearly every manner besides CC. Be ready to down some mana potions as well.
Defensive Ranged: This spec can be pretty much explained in a priority rotation; DoT everything>Bubble yourself or your FC, depending on who needs it more>Mind Flay kill target/ attacking melee>CC enemy healers when on O, CC enemy DPS/healers on O when defending>Bubble teammates if both you and your FC are topped off>Save your damn mana>Heal spam. This suggests that your main goal is pumping DPS into the enemy FC/healers, peeling for your team, and whittling down the entire enemy O/D, since there is little to no AoE healing in the bracket. This “sub-spec” can be compared to a Cata Affliction Warlock with less damage and more utility spells. My personal favorite
CC spammer: This is the spec for a person who enjoys the playstyle of a CC mage, and the utility of a disc priest (Note: not the heals, just the utility), or somebody who thinks healing is overrated and has a grudge against anything that can do anything better than they can. For this, you will be stacking stamina, and fearing/slowing everything in sight. Not much more to say, except that this pairs well with abilities with “/y STEREOTYPICAL TERRORIST PHRASE” macro’d onto them.
Part 3: Races!
For the most part, every race is viable, some slightly more than others.
Alliance:
Human: Opens up and extra trinket slot, so that you can kill more things!
Dwarf: Defensive CD allows you to kill more things!
Night Elf: Get out of jail free button allows you to kill more things!
Gnome: Natural casters with an extra escape; 2 things that let you kill more things!
Draenei: The extra hit allows for more intellect, haste and crit, and along with their heal, I’d say Draenei are the best at purely killing things as shadow priests.
Worgen: Eliminates the need for some of your essential speed pots, and more crit is always fun… FOR KILLING THINGS!
Pandaren: A big ol’ CC, fabulous looks and decent base stamina? Great! If you don’t intend on dying, you should grab some +6 spirit +6 stamina food, as the food buff makes it a 3 stamina for 12 spirit trade as opposed to rum.
Horde:
Troll: Passive CC reduction and health regen, and an offensive CD for killing things!
Forsaken: Passive life steal procs, and a trinket for most CC’s in the bracket, so you can live to see another day, and kill many more things on that day.
Tauren: Extra health, and an AoE stun, for setting up kills on things!
Blood Elf: AoE silence that restores mana. When you can silence healers, it’s much easier to kill things!
Goblin: Extra haste and a CD that can help with positioning, escaping, or killing things!
Author Recommended:
Offensive healer: Human/Blood Elf
Defensive Ranged: Draenei/Forsaken
CC spammer: Human/Pandaren/Tauren
Part 4: Gear!
19 shadow priest gear is complicated, as it’s very situational, so to fix this, I’ll be showing the 3 best options (from best to worst) for every gear slot for every play type.
Offensive Healer
Head: Tattered Dreadmist Mask/Lucky Fishing Hat/Green-tinted Goggles
Neck: Thick Bronze Necklace/Voice Amplification Modifier/Scout or Sentinel’s Medallion
Shoulders: Exquisite Sunderseer Mantle/Tattered Dreadmist Mantle/Talbar Mantle (for Swag purposes only)
Cloak: Tumultuous Cloak of Stamina/ Spidersilk Cloak/ Ancient Bloodmoon Cloak
Bracers: Mindthrust Bracers/Hovel Digger Bands (if not hit-capped)/Cuffs of the Black Elements (or their GF’ed equivalent)
Gloves: Jutebraid Gloves (if you’ve got them)/Serpent Gloves (Gold-fleckeds work too)/Magefist gloves
Belt: Enumerated Wrap of the Eagle/Keller’s Girdle/ …of the Vision
Pants: Tattered Dreadmist Leggings/Godfrey’s Britches/Darkweave Breeches
Feet: Spidersilk Boots/Merger Boots or Conspirator’s Slippers/Slippers of Unturned Loyalties
Ring 1: Seal of Argas/Stillwater’s Signet/Lavishly Jeweled Ring
Ring 2: Seal of Argas/Seal of Sylvanas/Seal of Wrynn
Trinket 1: Arena Grand Master/Discerning Eye of the Beast/Swift Hand of Justice
Trinket 2: Inherited Insignia/Insignia/Arena Grand Master
Main Hand: Blessed Hammer of Grace/Grand Staff of Jordan/Devout Aurastone Hammer
Offhand (If you decide to use one): Furbolg Medicine Pouch/Eerie Stable Lantern/Mystic Tome
Defensive Ranged
This set is very similar to the set above it, so I’m only going to list additional options.
Cloak: Tumultuous Cloak of the Sorcerer
Boots: If you have access to them, Walking Boots are optimal
Trinket 2: Inherited Insignia/Discerning Eye of the Beast/Arena Grand Master
Main Hand: Devout Aurastone Hammer/Grand Staff of Jordan/Blessed Hammer of Grace
Offhand: Mystic Tome/Eerie Stable Lantern/Furbolg Medicine Pouch
CC spammer
Your best bet is finding a good CC mage armory, or copying your CC mage’s gear if you’ve got one. This is very preferential.
Part 5: Enchants!
I’m only going to list 1-3 offensive and defensive enchants, and, much like the gear section, I’m leaving it to you to get hit-capped.
Cloak: +5 resists if you have it, +70 armor if you don’t
Chest: +100 hp, +100 mana, or +4 all stats. Very preferential
Bracers: +15 spell power, +9 stamina
Gloves: +16 spell power, +20 shadow spell power, +10 haste
Legs: +16 armor, +24 if on Darkweaves
Feet: +7 stamina, Minor speed, or +5 hit if you need to be hit capped
Weapon: +22 intellect, +30 spell power is usable, but provides less crit
Part 6: Talents!
Psyfiend: Only take as an offensive healer, for the sake of dampening damage. Not to be used as an urgent peel, as that little fiend is kinda stupid.
Void Tendrils: AMAZING trinket-baiter against PuGs, still and instant, AoE Entangling Roots if not trinketed. I LOVE this ability.
Dominate Mind: This spell will be utterly useless when not in skilled hands until patch 5.2, when its cast time is being reduced by 0.7 seconds. I will edit this once 5.2 launches, and I can test it in an actual bg.
Part 7: Professions
Engineering: I think Engineering makes for a potent CC-bot, and should be taken if you intend on coordinating with your team.
Skinning: Skinning is somewhat usable, but only if you’re building for crit, which requires a bit more “skill” in the form of not clipping DoTs, or refreshing them immediately after a tick.
Herbalism: The heal from Lifeblood isn’t amazing, and the haste is only good if you’re willing to refresh all of your DoTs immediately after you use it.
Mining: It’s 70 health. That’s all. If that sounds good to you, awesome! If not, I can sympathise.
Part 8: Spell Tricks and “Combos”!
This section WILL include talents, so don’t expect to be able to use them all at once.
Void Tendrils -> Psychic Scream
If you’re at low health, and being chased by melee, use Void Tendrils, turn your camera, and Psychic Scream when any of the melee trinket
Shadow Word: Pain -> Psychic Scream
This seems counter-intuitive, but if timed correctly, your target will stay feared until at least the third tick of your DoT, as the first one will be applied before the fear. This allows you to not only deal more damage, but actually raise the time your target is feared for if they’ve already been DoTted.
Mind Flay Juke!
If a rogue is coming closer to you to kick you while you’re healing yourself or an ally, use the macro I will post in the macro section of this guide to cancel your Flash Heal, start casting Mind Flay, and get you locked out of shadow as opposed to Holy!
If you have any more ideas, let me know in the comments!
Part 9: Other Neat Tricks!
2 tricks to help in landing a successful Fear/Void Tendrils:
1) Use a Speed Potion! This will let you fear enemies INTO your team, instead of away from the fight, generally leading glass cannon classes to their death
2) Face the enemy at a 90 degree angle, and strafe in to fear or use tendrils. It really messes with people who play zoomed in, or without name-plates enabled
A trick for every healer: Create mouse-over macros for your heals, and place the team frames near your character; it allows you to heal anybody without having to locate them (provided they’re in range), and allowing you to see what’s going on around you.
Part 10: 1v1 situations
Before you read the rest of this, know that your best option is always to run to your team, with very few exceptions.
Against classes with full health: Run!
Against classes with ¾ health: DoT them, and run!
Against classes with ½ health: DoT Ranged, DoT and Mind Flay spam melee, unless you see help coming for them.
Against classes with ¼ health: Kill ‘em! You can probably do it unless a stealthie is nearby to stain the ground with priest blood.
Part 11: Teamfights
In an equal fight: DoT everything and start healing everybody until an enemy falls below 50% hp, which is when you start Mind Flaying them. In situations like this, it’s best to have your “Toggle all Nameplates” bound to something you can hit easily.
When undermanned: Go into healbot mode, and fearbot mode if the enemy team is “clustered” together.
When overmanned: Go ahead and roll your face on you keyboard, because you’re almost useless when there isn’t a place for CC or less-than-average damage.
Part 12: Class Matchups!
Druids: They will out-heal you, and you will die. Sucks, I know.
Hunters: Fear the pets, and unload damage. Unless they’ve got any cooldowns, your bubbles and the occasional heal will be able to keep you topped off.
Mages: Bubble yourself and unload damage. If they blink, renew the Mind Flay slow, and chase by pressing Mind Flay, letting it tick, and chasing more.
Monks: DoT them up and engage, running won’t get you anywhere unless the enemy is CC’ed.
Paladins: DoT them and run. Be sure to keep renewing the Mind Flay slow, and run towards your GY.
Priests: Unless you’re both Shadow, grab something to eat, because that matchup will take HOURS.
Rogues: DoT them, CC them, and Min Flay them. That should kill them eventually, or at least save your life.
Shamans: Smack them up! It’s not like they can actually hurt you.
Warlocks: DoT them while they DoT you. The two of you have the same capabilities, except, you can heal the extra damage they have on you and then absorb some more.
Warriors: Save a fear and Roots for their charge(s), and DoT them. As long as you stay between 5 and 8 yards from them, you should be able to run to safety.
Part 13: Consumables!
Potions:
Lesser Mana Potion
Speed Potion/Molotov Cocktail
Elixirs:
Strong Troll’s Blood Elixir (Guardian)
Elixir of Wisdom (Battle)
Elixir of Minor Accuracy (0.5-10g every time you rezz for an instant hit cap)(Battle)
Bandages:
Heavy Runecloth Bandage
Runecloth Bandage (Heals you to full, but slower)
Food & Drink
Rumsey Rum Black Label
Halaani Whiskey
Raptor Punch
Venison Steak/Goblin Deviled Clams/Murloc Fin Soup/Redridge Goulash/Lean Wolf Steak, etc.(Best for Pandaren)
Other:
Minor Wizard Oil
Bloodthistle (BE only)
Scrying Roguestone
Part 14: Macros!
Mind Flay Juke:
This one is challenging, because by the time your GCD expires, the cast will be very close to done, so any addons with GCD timers are useful with this. This also serves as any normal stopcast macro, and it’s a mouseover Mind Flay.
Personal Bubble:
It’s a very rudimentary macro that will save your life many a time.
If you have any more suggestions or feedback for any part of this guide, feel free to comment or message me!
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