Normalizing low quality items...

[Zyr]

When you use the cube recipe to normalize lower quality items:

1) In the case of armour, is the defence rerolled completely within the range of "normal" armour of that type?

Yes.

2) More importantly does the maximum number of sockets change for such an item?

The ilvl of the rerolled item is set to 1, which reduces the maximum number of sockets for many items.

For example, all normal quality or superior elite body armors will receive four sockets from Larzuk. However, a low quality Sacred Armor which has been normalized with the El + chip recipe will always receive three. This can be extremely helpful when one wishes to make Duress, or one of the 1.11 + class skills armors.

The maximum number of sockets a specific ilvl 1 item will receive can be determined with adeyke's Diablo 2 Armour Upgrade Defense Calculator.