So another thought. I looked back and didn't see this topic yet addressed, so forgive me if I missed it. The blacksmith will be able to add sockets, but will there be randomness involved in the number of sockets he provides for an item, or will it be a guaranteed number? What are the advantages and disadvantages to both of these ideas?

Personally, I'm in favor of having a random number of sockets created, with no further socket additions possible. Not despite the fact that this could create unoptimized uber gear, but rather because of it. It'd be painful to roll one socket on the Sword of Ultimate Awesimilitude, but it could provide interesting scenarios where non-uber gear works out to be better than uber gear. This results in more character diversity, ultimately a good thing. That said, I can see the negatives of it too. Discuss!

As far as I last heard it (and this is subject to change of course) the blacksmith can add one extra socket (max) to specific items, up to the maximum allowable. So if (for example, I'm not claiming max socket numbers) a sword can have two sockets, but drops with none, you can add one socket to it.

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Q u o t e:
How do items that take up 2 slots in the inventory have more than 2 sockets?

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Requiring you to equip the item to gem?

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Q u o t e:
Also, will they all looks visually appealing like for the Shield example, or will they just be stuck to the center.

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The shield one was stuck to the center.