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Sockets

Diablo 2 Item socketsSome Diablo II items have sockets, in which magically infused gemsjewels or runes can be inserted to induce their magic powers to that item. These items will on themselves not provide any bonuses to a character.

Introduction

Socketed Items can be complicated, mainly in the number of sockets and how to add sockets to existing items. There are three Cube recipes to add them, as well as the socket quest in Act V. 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 gems + 1 magical weapon recipe, which will create a magical weapon with new properties and 1-2 sockets. This doesn’t add sockets to the existing 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 1-2 sockets from the Mechanic’s prefix, and some sets and uniques have 1 or more 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 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 sockets already.

Magical Items

Magical items can have 1-4 sockets, depending on the prefixes and the item type, and you can never add more sockets to an item that already has one or more. For magical items without sockets, using them in the socket quest reward will add 1 or 2 sockets, selected randomly.

Chipped Gems

There is a recipe for magical weapons.

  • 3 chipped gems + 1 magical weapon = magical weapon of the same type, with 1-2 sockets and an item level of 25.

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.

Normal Items

Normal items can have from 1-6 sockets. How many a given item can get is random for most item types, but the maximum is always limited by the mlvl of the monster that drops the item, item type and in the case of naturally spawning sockets the difficulty level. Items can only naturally spawn with a maximum of 3 sockets on normal difficulty, 4 sockets on nightmare and 6 sockets on hell. This limitation only applies to sockets that are spawn naturally, not ones which are added through the cube recipe or socket quest. Check the master table below, or the individual Armor and Weapons pages for info on how many sockets are possible on given item types.

The number of sockets from the socket quest is not affected by the difficulty level, only by the ilvl of the item, which is based on the mlvl of the monster that drops it. Your Clvl and the difficulty level of the quest reward has nothing to do with the number of sockets you get. You can use the Normal quest reward on a Crystal Sword and get 6 sockets, or the Hell quest reward and get 3, depending on the ilvl of the swords used.

There are rumours of the quest reward varying the number of sockets further but these rumours are completely unfounded. Its likely that minions on a borderline area level dropped a white item that was thought to have a lower ilvl. The number of sockets from a quest reward is always the maximum possible based on the ilvl and item type (assuming its a white item).

If you need a number of sockets that Larzuk won’t provide, then you’ll have to try the cube recipes which adds a random number of sockets or find that item with the number of sockets you want. The cube recipe has equal chances of adding 1 to 6 sockets on an item, with any socket count exceeding the maximum sockets available being bumped back down to the max. You cannot use the socket recipe on low quality items.

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.

How to Obtain Socketed/Socketable Items

To find socketed items you want to kill a lot of monsters while wearing as little Magic Find % as possible.

The key is to not have any Magic Find, since the more of that you have the more likely items dropped will be magical or better (Rare, SetUnique). Zero MF is best for finding socketed items, but if you can’t avoid a small % bonus, it won’t make much of a difference. The best characters for this are probably Sorcs for the high-level areas in hell mode and Javazons for the Cow level, where each can kill at a tremendous pace.

You want to be in as big a multi-player game as possible, so more items will drop, though this can be taken too far. If you don’t have a power character and it’s taking you much longer to kill in an 8-player, you could drop down to a 3-5 player and still have lots of items dropping, while killing so much faster that you actually get more items than you would taking twice as long in an 8 player game.

How to Unsocket an Item

There is good news and bad news.  The good news is you can remove gems, runes and jewels socketed into an item. The bad news is that you will lose the gems, runes and jewels but you will not lose the item so you are free to socket it again.

To remove items from sockets place the following in the Horadric Cube:

1 Hel Rune + Scroll of Town Portal + Your Socketed Item

Cube Recipes

Several Cube Recipes were added in v1.10 to make socketed items. Players can now turn low quality items into base quality (white) items which can be socketed via the socketing quest, or via a cube recipe.

Sockets by Number

The master list, with items sorted by Ilvl and alphabetically.

ItemIlvl 1-25Ilvl 26-40Ilvl 41+
Bone Knife111
Buckler111
Burnt Wand111
Dagger111
Defender111
Dirk111
Mithril Point111
Poignard111
Rondel111
Wand111
Yew Wand111
Circlet122
Coronet122
Diadem123
Tiara123
Armet222
Ataghan222
Barbed Shield222
Basinet222
Battle Cestus222
Blade222
Bloodlord Skull222
Bone Helm222
Bone Shield222
Bone Wand222
Cantor Trophy222
Cap/hat222
Casque222
Cestus222
Chain Mail222
Club222
Cudgel222
Cutlass222
Demon Head222
Demonhide Armor222
Elegant Blade222
Falcata222
Falchion222
Fascia222
Fetish Trophy222
Field Plate222
Flanged Mace222
Full Helm222
Gargoyle Head222
Ghost Armor222
Ghost Wand222
Giant Conch222
Gladius222
Grave Wand222
Grim Helm222
Grim Shield222
Grim Wand222
Hand Axe222
Hand Scythe222
Hard Leather Armor222
Hatchet222
Hatchet Hands222
Heater222
Heirophant Trophy222
Hellspawn Skull222
Helm222
Hydra Edge222
Hydraskull222
Jo Staff222
Katar222
Leather Armor222
Legend Spike222
Lich Wand222
Luna222
Mace222
Mighty Scepter222
Minion Skull222
Mummified Trophy222
Overseer Skull222
Petrified Wand222
Plate Mail222
Polished Wand222
Preserved Head222
Quilted Armor222
Reinforced Mace222
Round Shield222
Rune Scepter222
Saber222
Sallet222
Scale Mail222
Scepter222
Scimitar222
Serpentskin Armor222
Sexton Trophy222
Shako222
Shamshir222
Short Staff222
Short Sword222
Skull Cap222
Small Shield222
Spiked Club222
Spiked Shield222
Splint Mail222
Stilleto222
Studded Leather222
Succubae Skull222
Tomahawk222
Tomb Wand222
Trellised Armor222
Truncheon222
Tulwar222
Unearthed Wand222
Unraveller Head222
Walking Stick222
War Fist222
War Hat222
Wrist Blade222
Wrist Spike222
Zombie Head222
Bone Visage223
Corona223
Crown223
Death Mask223
Demonhead223
Grand Crown223
Great Helm223
Mask223
Spired Helm223
Winged Helm223
Alpha Helm233
Antlers233
Assault Helmet233
Avenger Guard233
Blade Talons233
Blood Spirt233
Carnage Helm233
Cinquedeas233
Claws233
Conquerer Crown233
Destroyer Helm233
Dream Spirit233
Earth Spirit233
Falcon Mask233
Fanged Helm233
Fanged Knife233
Feral Claws233
Fury Visor233
Greater Claws233
Greater Talons233
Griffon Headress233
Guardian Crown233
Hawk Helm233
Horned Helm233
Hunter’s Guise233
Jawbone Cap233
Jawbone Visor233
Kriss233
Lion Helm233
Quhab233
Rage Mask233
Runic Talons233
Sacred Feathers233
Savage Helmet233
Scissors Katar233
Scissors Quhab233
Scissors Suwayyah233
Sky Spirit233
Slayer Guard233
Spirit Mask233
Sun Spirit233
Suwayyah233
Totemic Mask233
Wolf Head233
Wrist Sword233
Clasped Orb233
Cloudy Sphere233
Crystalline Globe233
Demon Heart233
Dimensional Shard233
Dragon Stone233
Eagle Orb233
Eldritch Orb233
Glowing Orb233
Heavenly Stone233
Sacred Globe233
Smoked Sphere233
Sparkling Ball233
Swirling Crystal233
Vortex Orb233
Ancient Shield333
Ancient Sword333
Arbalest333
Barbed Club333
Bardiche333
Blade Barrier333
Breast Plate333
Cuirass333
Devil Star333
Dragon Shield333
Edge Bow333
Espadon333
Gothic Shield333
Grand Scepter333
Holy Water Sprinkler333
Hyperion333
Hyperion Spear333
Jagged Star333
KhalimFlail333
Kite Shield333
Large Shield333
Legend Sword333
Light Crossbow333
Light Plate333
Linked Mail333
Lochaber Axe333
Long Staff333
Mage Plate333
Mesh Armor333
Morning Star333
Mythical Sword333
Ogre Axe333
Pavise333
Pellet Bow333
Quarterstaff333
Ring Mail333
Russet Armor333
Scutum333
Seraph Rod333
Sharktooth Armor333
Short Bow333
Spear333
Spider Bow333
Stalagmite333
SuperKhalimFlail333
Templar Coat333
Tigulated Mail333
Tower Shield333
Troll Nest333
Two-Handed Sword333
Tyrant Club333
War Spear333
War Sword333
Wirt’s Leg333
Aegis334
Monarch334
Ward334
Aerin Shield344
Akaran Rondache344
Akaran Targe344
Ancient Armor344
Kurast Shield344
Archon Plate344
Balrog Blade344
Balrog Skin344
Bastard Sword344
Battle Hammer344
Battle Sword344
Bill344
Blade Bow344
Boneweave344
Broad Sword344
Champion Sword344
Chaos Armor344
Claymore344
Colossus Voulge344
Composite Bow344
Conquest Sword344
Crossbow344
Crown Shield344
Cryptic Sword344
Dacian Falx344
Diamond Mail344
Double Bow344
Dusk Shroud344
Embossed Plate344
Full Plate Mail344
Fuscina344
Giant Sword344
Gorgon Crossbow344
Gothic Plate344
Gothic Sword344
Great Bow344
Great Hauberk344
Guilded Shield344
Hellforged Plate344
Heraldic Shield344
Highland Blade344
Hunter’s Bow344
Kraken Shell344
Lacquered Plate344
Legendary Mallet344
Long Sword344
Loricated Mail344
Ornate Armor344
Protector Shield344
Razor Bow344
Rondache344
Royal Shield344
Rune Sword344
Sacred Armor344
Sacred Rondache344
Sacred Targe344
Scarab Husk344
Shadow Plate344
Siege Crossbow344
Stygian Pike344
Targe344
Trident344
Tusk Sword344
Vortex Shield344
Voulge344
War Hammer344
Wire Fleece344
Wyrmhide344
Zakarum Shield344
Ashwood Bow345
Battle Scythe345
Brandistock345
Cedar Bow345
Chu-Ko-Nu345
Colossal Sword345
Cryptic Axe345
Demon Crossbow345
Diamond Bow345
Flail345
Flamberge345
Hellforge Hammer345
Knout345
Long Bow345
Mancatcher345
Matriarchal Bow345
Partizan345
Poleaxe345
Repeating Crossbow345
Rune Bow345
Scourge345
Scythe345
Shadow Bow345
Short Battle Bow345
Short Siege Bow345
Short War Bow345
Stag Bow345
Thresher345
War Fork345
Ward Bow345
Zweihander345
Ceremonial Bow345
Grand Matron Bow345
Reflex Bow345
Balista346
Bec-de-Corbin346
Ceremonial Pike346
Ceremonial Spear346
Colossus Blade346
Colossus Crossbow346
Crusader Bow346
Crystal Sword346
Dimensional Blade346
Executioner Sword346
Ghost Spear346
Giant Thresher346
Gothic Bow346
Great Maul346
Great Poleaxe346
Great Sword346
Grim Scythe346
Halberd346
Heavy Crossbow346
Hydra Bow346
Lance346
Long Battle Bow346
Long Siege Bow346
Long War Bow346
Maiden Pike346
Maiden Spear346
Martel de Fer346
Matriarchal Pike346
Matriarchal Spear346
Maul346
Ogre Maul346
Phase Blade346
Pike346
Spetum346
Thunder Maul346
War Club346
War Pike346
War Scythe346
Yari346
Caduceus355
Divine Scepter355
War Scepter355
Axe444
Battle Staff444
Cedar Staff444
Cleaver444
Elder Staff444
Feral Axe444
Gnarled Staff444
Gothic Staff444
Large Axe444
Military Axe444
Shillelah444
Small Crescent444
Battle Axe455
Bearded Axe455
Broad Axe455
Decapitator455
Double Axe455
Ettin Axe455
Silver Edged Axe455
Tabar455
Twin Axe455
Ancient Axe456
Berserker Axe456
Champion Axe456
Crowbill456
Giant Axe456
Glorious Axe456
Gothic Axe456
Great Axe456
Military Pick456
Naga456
War Axe456
War Spike456
Archon Staff566
Rune Staff566
War Staff566
ItemIlvl 1-25Ilvl 26-40Ilvl 41+