10-01-2003, 01:29 PM
You interpreted correctly that those types of staves will always have 4 sockets possibles.
Items at vendor normally have ilvl = clvl + 5, with caps for vendors in normal difficulty (ilvl 28 in act 3 normal, for example).
So, if you did find a socketed staff for sale, I think it would have the possibility of 4 sockets.
With the vendors, however, there's a tendency towards magical items instead of plain/socketed ones later in the game (with a higher clvl, probably). I'm not sure how exactly this works, but this would explain why there aren't any socketed staves available anymore there. Someone else will probably be able to fill you in with the details of this.
For the extra credit question, I'd guess that it only affects the arrows, but I'm not sure about that.
Items at vendor normally have ilvl = clvl + 5, with caps for vendors in normal difficulty (ilvl 28 in act 3 normal, for example).
So, if you did find a socketed staff for sale, I think it would have the possibility of 4 sockets.
With the vendors, however, there's a tendency towards magical items instead of plain/socketed ones later in the game (with a higher clvl, probably). I'm not sure how exactly this works, but this would explain why there aren't any socketed staves available anymore there. Someone else will probably be able to fill you in with the details of this.
For the extra credit question, I'd guess that it only affects the arrows, but I'm not sure about that.