The reason i get exhaust is because of talon passive Mercy. I know when you get frozen mallet and have your rake he has enough slows but getting the mastery point for exhaust will help you shred through enemys faster.When you get to lvl 3 thats when you want to start playing agresive with rake but you need to manage you mana.Anyways when you hit lvl 3 and you see that you oppenent is weakened wait till you have the mana to use all of your abilities, (not including shadow Assault unless you have it) you will need to use rake on the enemy then cutthroat to them getting noxian deplomacy.That is one of talons combo and since you will be in mid you cant counter almost every ap champion like karthus and even katarina if you play it right.If you ever pop shadow ***oult to chase make sure too cut throat you enemy then get in fronjt of him as fast a possible so you blades can hit him on there way to you then rake and noxian deplomacy Boom they are dead.Also try getting a jungler with a slow,stun,or a root.Like maokai,lets say a mao on your team comes to ganks as soon as you see them close enough cutthroat rake noxian deplomacy and by the time you finish that you mao shouldve already had them stunned and the enemy will fall down easily.Talon can also gank very well wait in the brush for you oppenents then do your combo on them cutthroat rake noxian deplomacy then shadow ***oult and wait before you bring you blades back to you until you rake comes back out of cooldown unless you know you can kill him at the moment then go ahead and dont worry about waiting. (make sure to never gank before lvl 6 and it will always be helpful to have Shadow ***oult up.I hope these tips can help become a great talon in mid and if there is any counters to a talon in mid (ap carry's) then please message me or leave a comment telling me because of what ive seen ive never been countered.