just posting for anyone else who may have the same question, or simply want to knowĮdit: thanks for the clarification Feanur, you are da man the data I pooled above was from the diablo wiki at. I do apologize if my info was misleading at first, I was simply going off of what I knew, and experience. don't know that one tho, so make sure you find out before doing so. if it's based on your clvl then purchasing a long sword post lvl 25 will net you a 4 socket sword. i don't have info yet on wht the Ilvl of an item is when purchased. I've never had it happen, but perhaps that's due to the long swords I've used in the past. So it is possible to get a long sword with only 3 sockets off the quest. the first lvl 41 area is tower cellar level 4 in act 1 nightmare, so any crystal sword that drops off of areas higher then that will yield 6 sockets. everything past that is higher, so any sword that drops in those areas will net you 4 sockets. The lowest area to have monsters of mlvl 26 or greater is durance of hate lvl 3 (mephs area) in normal.

the sockets are as follows for specific Ilvl categories: Long swords are minimum mlvl 20, crystal swords mlvl 11. basically, the sockets that are available for an item are not dependent on the act they drop in, but the Ilvl of the item, which is based on the Mlvl of the mob that drops it. Well, I decided to do some research since I was worried about the outcome.

Diablo 2 4 socket shield normal