(Author’s Note: if you are looking for real LotV build orders, check out http://lotv.spawningtool.com, where you can see build orders extracted from beta replays)

This evening, I played my usual Tuesday night StarCraft with my friends, but we changed things up by using the “Legacy of the Void” extension mod to try out the new economy in our 3v3 games. Specifically, it bumped up the starting workers to 12, increased starting supply for the different races, and reduced the resources at each base. A few observations off the bat about what Legacy of the Void (LotV) might look like.

Bases ran out of minerals really quickly. I was scrambling to take extra bases and ended up broke while trying to hold onto my 4th base. That felt chaotic.

Minerals come in so quickly. The game starts, and it feels like your economy is zooming. It’s only 4 workers away from roughly optimal saturation on your main base, so the emphasis on building workers is diminished. Despite that, you feel like a macro monster because your minerals are climbing so quickly, and you just want to expand.

The aggro starts quickly and hard. Although it feels like you’re ahead because of the strong macro, that also means it’s a lot easier for big pushes to come sooner. You have to get units out quickly.

Given that, I put together what felt like a decent starting point for a Zerg build order.

ZvX 17 Pool Expand

• 12 0:10 Overlord
• 17 1:05 Spawning Pool
• 17 1:40 Hatchery
• 16 2:10 Queen, 6 Zerglings

This build is relatively straightforward. Start with the Overlord first because if you build a worker first, you will be supply blocked. Crank workers continuously until you get enough minerals banked for a Spawning Pool. Pick up a worker, then save larvae for the 6 Zerglings. Oddly, you actually have enough money to get a Hatchery in-between there. The Zerglings can arrive at your opponents base before 3:30.

This, of course, skips scouting. I think it might be necessary to scout with a starting worker, particularly for 4 player maps. All of the timings are pushed back.

I imagine we will be refining a lot in the coming days, but it’s interesting to see how completely different the threats and timings are. The above build will probably fall out of favor very quickly: it’s easy to defend without sacrificing economy, so it may not be worth getting the Zerglings out so soon. I do think that with so much money, though, it might be worth the earlier Spawning Pool just to get Queens for more spending. We might also see early gases for very fast Zergling Speed.

Anyways, there’s obviously a lot of time ahead, but I thought I would share what I have seen so far. I’m very excited to see how the meta develops!