I’m in Nightmare Act 2 and finally have all the runes for a Spirit and before I use Larzuk to socket my crystal sword I’d like to give it a shot at actually having one drop for me… I almost used the socket quest for a polearm for insight but people convinced it wasn’t worth it and an hour later a 4os polearm dropped so I’d like to have the patience again to find a legit 4os crystal sword so I can save the larzuk reward. If you have any tips on where I could find a 4os crystal sword I’d be delighted to hear about it.
Normal cows is the place
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Before you blow your Larzuk socket reward… Consider this cube recipe:
1 Ral Rune + 1 Amn Rune + 1 Perfect Amethyst + Normal Weapon = Socketed Weapon of same type
The number of sockets created will vary. The item must be normal and unsocketed. Low-quality items and superior items do not work. The item gets 1-6 sockets, randomly. However, the number of sockets is then restricted by the maximum number of sockets that base item with that ilvl can have. For example, if you have an item that can only have 2 sockets, there’s a 5/6 chance of getting 2 sockets and a 1/6 chance of getting 1 socket.
A normal crystal sword found in Normal Cows will have a 50% chance of getting 4 sockets.
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If you see a white sword drop, look up the monster level that dropped it. for crystal sword ilvl 25-40 will get 4 sockets from larzuk.
So basically pretty much anything from act 4 normal until act 2 nightmare will probably get 4 sockets. Just double check to be sure.
Used that to make my eth insight partizan 
My merc was doing more than 5 times as much damage as my zon for a long time. He still hits harder but the gap is not as massive.
Second edit: to the op… to be honest. I have a 4 socket crystal sword I was going to use to make a spirit but I am sure I will find another before I actually need one. Want it?
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Keep farming on nightmare with zero magic find in order to get it if you dont want use the quest , eventually it will drop, also you dont need to be a crystal sword also a broad sword will work
I’ve farmed cows for the sword itself to drop incase i wanted to use the socket quest but normal can only drop items with a maximum of 3 sockets.
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With socket quest or cube recipe the socket restrictions from difficulty level do not apply.
The Secret Cow Level in normal difficulty is area level 28, which results in monsters dropping item level 28 items. Item level 26-40 = 4 sockets max.
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they meant normal sword without sockets and use Larzuk to guarantee add 4 sockets if its from cows
Just going to put this out again, I have a 4 socket crystal sword that I probably won’t use anytime soon since I started zon.
It’s yours if you want it.
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Yes, they do apply. Regardless of which route you choose to socket a white item, the item level (iLV) determines the maximum number of sockets. The item level is determined by the monster level. For Normal, iLV = mLV. For Nightmare and Hell, iLV is based on area level (aLV). So any white crystal sword from NM Act 1 is guaranteed to be able to get four sockets. Note I said “able to get” - both Larzuk and the cube recipe do a 1d6 roll, with the 4-6 (internally determined) roll being max sockets for the iLV involved. The one difference is that Larzuk can socket any item, including Superior items while the cube recipe can only socket plain ol’ white items with no modifications. That’s generally why you try to save Larzuk for endgame socketing of unique and set items, or for things like high end ethereal gear for your merc.
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No, the difficulty restrictions do not apply. Ilvl restriction and base type limit does.
The Difficulty restriction means 3 sockets is the most an item can drop with in normal, 4 sockets nightmare, 6 hell.
You can get more than 3 and 4 in normal with cube and larzuk.
Also Larzuk does not roll 1-6 like cube does, he always gives the maximum the item can have.
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OK, I see what you’re getting at. Your earlier post was a bit vaguely worded. As for Larzuk giving the max sockets, that might actualy be broken since I had an iLV 45 crown drop from the Countess in NM and he only gave me two sockets. Anything 41+ should have gotten three sockets. If it happens again I’ll put in a bug report.
My post was a reply to the op wondering why they could not find a 4 socket sword from norm cows. The answer was they simply couldn’t. The reason people do norm cows for 4 sock sword is that larzuk will give it 4 sockets or you have a good chance of rolling 4 from cube. Forgotten tower has monsters from level 38-42 in nightmare, you probably got one that was under ilvl 41.
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The crown dropped from the countess herself. She’s mLV 45. But even if it hadn’t, dropping on either floor 4 or 5 of the tower guarantees iLV 41 and 42 respectively as iLV = aLV in NM/H unless the monster is above aLV and has a higher TC. That crown should have had three sockets (my second attempt via the cube since my Larzuk quest was used on the first crown from the countess) worked.
Might take a while to get another crown from her (I’m farming runes for Lionheart to boost my resistances + shore up a bit of lacking stats), but once I do I’ll try it on a burner mule and see if it is indeed borked or not. Farming can be so fickle sometimes, ya? 
Incorrect. Area level is not always the same as the monster level. Most of the monsters that spawn near countess are going to be level 39-42 regardless of the floor level. They vary.
Countess herself very rarely drops anything but runes, but it is possible.
Are you sure it dropped from countess or one of her minions? That would be the only way to be certain it was over 41. I’m not saying it is impossible, just very unlikely. It’s one of the reasons I never use socket quest on an item that is on the borderline. I don’t want any guess work at all.
All 4 of the socket quests I have used behaved exactly as I intended, so if it is a bug I would need some kind of evidence to believe it.
Edit: on a side note, this kind of thing is exactly why I think iLvl should not be hidden. It’s so important to know what it is…
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BuT tHiS iS dIaBlO 2
/s
You could probably just make a game named “need 4os sword” and someone would just give you one. I’m starting to just leave them on the ground.
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Yeah, it dropped from her. I had killed her minions outright with frozen arrow. Only she was left when it popped off her a few seconds later. No bigs now since I managed to make a 3os crown after the fact. Would have preferred a grand crown, but those don’t drop in early NM. Bowazons are a pain to gear up relative to javazons. 
Playing one myself actually. I have a 4 socket Cedar bow if you want one to make a harmony or something in. I ended up putting my harmony in a shadow bow and just got stats for it from a dex ring and lionheart.