Quote:Sounds like its time for some testing!:)
I'm on it.
After some testing I came to some rather unexpected results.
The ilevel of items is indeed determined by the character level + 5: my level 67 Nightmare Act 5 character could purchase ilevel 72 items; my level 75 act 2 Hell character could purchase ilevel 80 items; my level 22 character in act 3 normal could purchase level 27 items.
But, on normal mode there seems to be a vendor ilevel cap. In act 2 it's ilevel 20. In act 3 it's ilevel 28. In act 5 it's ilevel 45. So if the character's level + 5 is greater than the vendor cap, the vendor will only display ilevel items to their natural cap.
This is confirmed by taking a level 52 necromancer and purchasing a broad sword in Act 2. When it was socketed the item returned with only 3 sockets, not four. It appears the cap does in fact exist.
Not what I was expecting, but very interesting to find out.
I've made backups of my save character files, so my actual quests are all intact. In other words, if there are anymore questions/testing anyone would like to be done I'm more than willing to check it out (socketing a normal broadsword in nightmare Larzuk, etc).
Cheers,
Munk
PS. Using PlugY from the folks over at The Phrozen Keep, I enabled ilevel item display. From there I double checked the displayed numbers by running it through Larzuk's socket quest.
Edit: Awesome, thanks for the confirmation Librarian:) In the future I'll be sure to reload the page before posting!