Amarande wrote:
[TOP POSTING TO RETAIN USEFUL INFO BY AMARANDE, SKIP THIS POST
IF YOU DETEST TOP POSTINGS]
These are extremely useful info provided by Amarande. To
supplement, the followings are extracts from a b.net.forum post
by Posterboy
(www.battle.net/forums/thread.aspx?fn=d2-gameplay&t=186629&p=1&#post186629):
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LARZUK
"How many sockets will this item get if I take it to Larzuk?"
Once you understand all of the rules stated above, it's pretty
simple:
* Larzuk will always add the maximum number of sockets
possible to a low quality/normal/superior (white color name, or
gray if it's ethereal) item. To add to the example started
above, a plain white Spetum with an ilvl of 25 will get exactly
3 sockets from Larzuk; a Spetum of ilvl 26 will get exactly 4
sockets; and a Spetum of ilvl 45 will get exactly 6 sockets.
Larzuk will never ever give you 1 or 2 or 5 sockets on a plain
white Spetum.
* Larzuk will randomly add either 1 or 2 sockets to a Magic
(blue color name) item, with 50% chance of either.
* Larzuk will always add exactly 1 socket to a Unique (gold
color), Set (green color), Rare (yellow color), or Crafted
(orange color) item.
* The game difficulty (Normal, Nightmare, or Hell) in which
you use your quest reward does not affect the number of sockets
in any way.
* Character level does not affect the number of sockets in
any way.
* Larzuk doesn't care if the item is superior or not.
* Larzuk will not accept non-socketable item types for
socketing, nor will he accept any item that already has at least
1 socket already on it.
[ post edited by Veneteaou ]
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Furthermore, after reading Amarande post, I realized I had an
inferior Archon plate on one of my chars, so I repaired it using
the cube recipe. The repaired and now normal Archon plate has
fallen from the third bracket to the first. I then socketed it
through Lazerak, and bam, got 3 sockets out of the now 494 def
Archon.
So if Jake Mysterio is still looking for a nice 3os armor, he
can start yelling at me.
I also think this gives those who have multiple socket quests
available another option to get hold of nice R/W'able weapons
and armors.
Bing
***
Post by Amarande* All items have 3 socket brackets, corresponding to ilvl 1-25, 26-40,
and 41+ (Actually ... is it 1-24, 25-39, and 40+? I'm not sure of the
boundaries but as long as you avoid ilvls 25 and 40 exactly it won't
matter <G>). The maximum number of sockets may or may not differ for
items falling in a different ilvl bracket - this depends on the base
item type, for some two or all brackets are the same, but for others
(e.g., a Crystal Sword), they are all different.
* Items DROPPED PRE-SOCKETED on normal IIRC have a cap to maximum
sockets, and cannot receive 6 (or even 5?) even if they normally would
be able to (for instance, a Crystal Sword has brackets of 3/4/6, and
some monsters in the WSK on normal are indeed level 41+, but IIRC you
cannot receive a 6-soc Crystal Sword even from such a monster).
* This does NOT apply to items that are socketed via Larzuk, however -
ONLY base item type and ilvl are relevant. The reasons for the confusion
are thus the cap on pre-socketed drops noted above, as well as the fact
that many players use their normal socket quest immediately and are
surprised to find that the item didn't get the usual maximum number of
sockets.
But this latter is not because of a Normal cap but because the player
tried to socket something with an ilvl less than 41. For instance, a
Crystal Sword has brackets of 3/4/6, so if you take say J. Random
Crystal Sword dropped in the River of Flame Normal and try to socket it
(on ANY difficulty) you may be quite surprised (if you didn't know about
the bracket rule) that your ilvl 30 or so sword receives only 4 sockets
instead of the 6 you expected.
- Caster runewords, where the power of a weapon doesn't matter, so a
normal-grade weapon is useful (and even often more useful than an
exceptional or elite weapon due to lower requirements). The canonical
example is Spirit, which is ideally placed in a crystal sword, which is
the lowest requirement sword that can get more than 3 sockets. Normal
cows are level 28 (31 for minions of a boss), so a Crystal Sword given
by a normal cow falls nicely in the second bracket which as noted in the
above examples gives four sockets wherever you socket it whereas one on
Hell will give 6 no matter how you squirm.
- The Horadric Cube 'repair' recipe for use on low quality/cracked/etc.
gear resets the ilvl of the item to 1 after repairing it. This is very
useful in cases like the current thread concerns, because such an item
is forced into the first bracket, which is basically the only way to get
an elite white item that falls outside of the third bracket (as all
monsters that drop elites are level 41+).
Unfortunately the use of this is limited, and won't help for 5 socket
polearms because there are only 3 items that receive 5 sockets in the
first bracket that don't in the third (the War Staff and its higher
versions). OTOH, it is very useful indeed if 4 sockets is what you're
after, since a LOT of items have brackets of 4/5/5 or 4/5/6. The only
downside to this is that you give up the possibility of a Superior
bonus, which is especially useful for mercs (for player equipment I
avoid Superior like the plague due to the inane repair costs) ... also,
Ethereal gear never spawns in low-quality forms that I know of, so you
can't get the eth bonus either. But if you really need 4 sockets then
it's pretty useful ... Too bad there's no way to get a second-bracket
elite item!