Changes

On top There are rumors of this, the quest reward varying the number of sockets is semi-randomfurther but these rumors are completely unfounded. Testing in single player (where the same Its likely that minions on a borderline area level dropped a white item can be used multiple times, by exiting the game without saving) has yielded varying numbers that was thought to have a lower qlvl. The number of sockets, using the exact same item and from a quest reward. The number you get seems to be +/- 1 from what you'd expect is always the maximum possible based on the max to be for that qlvl and item type (assuming its a white item).

For this reason using the socketing quest to add If you need a number of sockets to normal items is not recommendedthat Lazurk won't provide (most likely 5), since the results are too unpredictable. Itthen it's best you'll have to try and find that item with the number of sockets you want, for a specific RuneWord, generally. Trade for it if you have to, or ask in games, most people don't save socketed items, so you might ask as soon as you join, say you'll make 100k for a 5-socket Ogre Maul, for example, or trade more if someone drives a hard bargain. If they aren't keeping it, they'll only get 35k at most for the sale, so shouldn't be too greedy.