Welcome back my good friends, or if your a first timer to one of my wonderful guides, hello! Today we are back in the mid lane with an awesome assassin named Talon. A solid AD pick that can blow up squishys in under a second, he is a formidable champion to play against, but more importantly to learn. As with all guides it will be up to you to take this information and learn how to play Talon and climb in Solo Que. Also the usual YouTube link is posted below to my channel and to a fresh video guide. So let's get started!

YouTube video guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-seSwmdsb_Y

Talon Passive Guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tuwts4KPFU

So first things first, your build.

- So to start off with are your boots. Typically I build Boots of Swiftness for the Slow resist and extra movement speed. However, if you feel more comfortable with Ninja Tabi or Mercury's Treads for more durability depending on the match up, then you are free to do so. Remember, Ninja Tabi against 3 AD or more, and Mercury's Treads against 3 AP or more.

- Lethality

- Or basically, scaling armor pen. The 3 items you are going to build here are Youmuu's Ghostblade, Duskblade of Draktharr, and Edge of Night.

- Armor Reduction

- Black Cleaver is core for this stat. The difference between this and Lethality is that this is lowering your enemies armor for your team, rather than just ignoring the armor stat for yourself, thus allowing for more team damage. Now in some cases against squishys, this can lower armor enough that your Lethality will cause your abilities to deal true damage. Broken right?

- Cooldown Reduction

- Combined with Runes, this will get you to a full 40% CDR by late game. Here will be Youmuu's Ghostblade for 10%, Black Cleaver for 20%, and Duskblade of Draktharr for the additional 10% for 40% CDR by level 18.

- Utility/Anti Crowd Control

- So for here you will build Edge of Night or Mercurial Scimitar situationaly. Edge of Night will give you the CC shield for entering combat, and Mercurial Scimitar will give you the active CC cleanse if your hit by hard crowd control in a team fight. You can have on of these as your 5th item, and finally build Guardian Angel.

- So this is pretty straight forward and linear. First you want to rush Serrated Dirk and then either Tier 2 Boots or finish the Youmuu's Ghostblade followed by Tier 2 boots, that's up to you. After that build Duskblade of Draktharr, then Black Cleaver, followed by Edge of Night or Mercurial Scimitar.. When it comes to the build path of these items, build them like this. With Black Cleaver it doesn't matter which item you buy into it first, ie Phage or Kindlegem. But with Duskblade of Draktharr and Edge of Night, always build the Serrated Dirk first for the Lethality stat. With Mercurial Scimitar, build Quicksilver Sash first. When you get to Guardian Angel, build Stopwatch for the invulnerable mechanic for a potential outplay then build that into Guardian Angel last.

For Standard runes your keystone is going to be Electrocute for burst damage. Then Sudden Impact for more Lethality, Eyeball Collection for more damage, and Relentless Hunter for better roaming potential. For Secondary runes you will run The Ultimate Hat for increased Ultimate CDR, and Scorch for extra damage to help with being an Assassin.

- At level 1 you'll take Rake, level 2 your Noxian Diplomacy, then level 3 your Assassin's Path. Max Rake first by 9, Noxian Diplomacy Second by 13 and Assassin's Path third by 18. And as always, your Shadow Assault at levels 6, 11, and 16. Always do this, period.

Your Assassin's Path is you Parkour, so use that to either escape over walls or leap over walls to engage and assassinate. Remember, you cannot jump over walls with your Shadow Assault active, otherwise it will finish early and not hit your target.

- Rake -> Noxian Diplomacy -> AA

- This is your primary damage combo if you can land it in lane, land both parts of your Rake followed by Noxian Diplomacy and an auto attack and your passive will pop dealing tons of damage. Throw an Ignite in there if they are low health and grab yourself a kill.

- Shadow Assault -> Rake -> Noxian Diplomacy -> AA -> Ignite

- This is your primary kill combo with your Shadow Assault. Ignite is optional if you have it up or if the target is low enough health that you can save it for later.

- Assassin's Path -> Rake -> Noxian Diplomacy -> Shadow Assault -> AA -> Ignite

- This is for leaping over a wall and landing next to someone.

*AA - Auto Attack

- Pros

- Tons of Damage
- Lethality Stat puts your damage close to true damage against squishys
- Guaranteed Critical Strike with Noxian Diplomacy if close enough
- Passive applies to Dragon and Baron
- PARKOUR!

- Cons

- Falls off hyper late game
- Multiple CC can stop him
- Easy to see coming in lane
- Must land an auto attack to pop passive

- Basically your job is to sneak into the back line and kill either the ADC or the most prominent threat that isn't a tank. Or, you can find lone targets and blow them up as well. Either way you just need to make people go pop. During the laning phase in lane kills are hard to get mid lane since you don't have your old gap closer. However, you are now built to be a really strong roamer with his new Assassin's Path. This allows him to parkour over walls and bypass wards, so no one will ever see you coming. Use that to your advantage during the lane phase. Then come team fights, you have to be a little creative when diving the back line, and also using your Edge of Night to get to the back line. With Talon's kit he still can one shot in under a second, so get to the back line threat and blow them up!

In conclusion i just want to say that Talon is a really fun and an easy champ to pick up and learn. His new Assassin's Path lets him, yes I know, PARKOUR! over walls which is tons a fun to do. As with all guides I just want to re-hash that it is up to you as the player to execute him with the knowledge given, and that I am only providing the tools necessary to do so. Well I hope you enjoyed this guide on Talon and enjoy the YouTube guide provided as well. Best of luck summoner and see you on the rift! Cheers!