Changes

Socketed Items can be complicated, mainly in the number of sockets and how to add sockets to existing items. There are two three [[Cube recipes]] to add them, as well as the socket quest in [[Act IV]]. Also items can generate with a 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 magical weapon recipe, which will create a magical sword weapon with new properties and 1-2 sockets. This doesn't add sockets to the existing sword weapon 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 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 sockets already- it can receive 1-2 from the Mechanic's affix.

'''Chipped Gems''': There is a recipe for magical weapons. 3 chipped gems + 1 magical sword weapon = magical sword weapon of the same type, with 1-2 sockets. This should be done by a high and an item level character, lvl 70+ is sufficient to get Cruel as a prefix, which is what 99.9% of the people doing this quest most want25. This results in a magical, socketed weapon that can be rerolled again with chipped, normal or flawless gems as many times as desired. Weapons which cannot have sockets (like throwing weapons) won't get any socket and those with a maximum of 1 socket (like a few daggers and wands) have no chance for two of them. The issue of possible affixes (or bonuses to single skills on wands, orbs etc.) is beyond the scope of this article. It follows the normal rules for the generation of magical items, see the [[Item Generation Tutorial]] for details.