Changes

Socketed Items can be complicated, mainly in the number of sockets and how to add sockets to existing items. There are two [[Cube recipes]] to add them, as well as the socket quest in [[Act IV]]. Also items can generate with a wide variety variable number of sockets, and how many depends on the monster that drops them, the item type, and much more.

You can ''never add a socket to an item that already has one or more sockets'', with any recipe or the socketing quest reward. The only partial exception is the 3 chipped [[gem]]s + 1 sword recipe, which will create a magical sword with new properties and 3 1-2 sockets. This doesn't add sockets to the existing sword though, since it is rolling new mods on the weapon, so is essentially random.

'''Rare/Set/Unique/Crafted Items''': The Socketing quest adds 1 and only 1 Socket to any of these types. Rares may spawn with 1 socket from a prefix, and some sets and uniques have 2 or 3 sockets inherently, and can't have more added. You will never get more than 1 socket added using the socketing quest on any of these items. Rare items can also have a socket added by a [[Cube_Recipes| Horadric Cube Recipe]]. This requires 1 Stone of Jordan + 3 Perfect Skulls + One Rare Item. It's basically the same as putting that Rare item in the socketing quest reward. It can't be used on an item with a socket already.

'''Magical Items''': Magical items can have 1-4 sockets, depending on the prefixes and the item type, and you can never add more to those. For magical items without sockets, using them in the socket quest reward will add 1 or 2 sockets, with a 50% equal chance at iteither. It's entirely luck if you get 1 or 2 on them, so cross your fingers.

'''ChippiesChipped Gems''': There is a recipe just for swordsmagical weapons. 3 chipped gems + 1 magical sword = magical sword of the same type, with 3 1-2 sockets. This should be done by a high level character, lvl 70+ is sufficient to get Cruel as a prefix, which is what 99.9% of the people doing this quest most want. This can yield the highest damage sword possible in the game, when you factor results in the added sockets.  ===How to Find Chippies===To find socketed items you want to kill a lot of normal [[monster]]s (not [[boss]]es), while wearing as little [[Magic Find]] % as possible. Boss runs are exactly wrong for socketed items, since bosses always drop at least magical items, never normal or socketed. Therefore you want to do levels weapon that have tons of monsterscan be rerolled again with chipped, and not a lot of bosses. The [[Bloody Foothills]] normal or the Halls [[Halls of Valor|Valor]]/[[Halls of Anguish|Anguish]]/[[Halls of Vaught|Vaught]] or the levels of the [[Worldstone Keep]] are good for these since they have no random bosses or [[champion]]s, which take longer to kill and never drop socketed items. The best place however is probably the [[Secret Cow Level]], since there are such enormous numbers of targets. There are random cow bosses and champions, but with hundreds of normal cows around, it's more than worth itflawless gems as many times as desired.

'''Normal Items''': Normal items can have from 1-6 sockets. How many on a given item is random for most item types (circlets can only have 1 socket), but the maximum is limited by the [[mlvl]] of the monster that drops the item, and the item type. Check our [[Armor]] and [[Weapon]]s pages for info on how many sockets are possible on given item types. In terms of how many max, this is determined by the mlvl of the monster that drops the item. This max applies to sockets on socketed items they drop, and also on how many sockets you'll get if you socket quest a normal item they drop.

<nowiki>**</nowiki> Most [[Paladin]] shields can have 4 sockets at any time. Only three elite shields (KiteMonarch, TowerAegis, GothicWard) can have 4 sockets for other characters.  You need to check the [[item]]s pages for sockets possible in items, since these are just the maximum possible, and most items can't have the maximum. They are always limited by the inventory spaces an item takes up.