This guide will explain how "gay" Talon can be with his Noxian Diplomacy criting every champion in the league until their anuses start bleeding. Many of you may have only known Talon played with anal penet....... excuse me, armor penetration items. However, since the great Riot nerf, Talon's peni5 has been reduced to less than an inch long and 1cm in diameter. Therefore, I have decided to put crit items on Talon in order to lose the virginity of many champions quicker and burst open their anus with damages you have never seen before.

[Stats: +9.8 attack damage| +6.4 armor penetration| +12.69 armor| +12.06 magic resist ]

As Talon plays the role of a high burst damage assassin, It is essential for Talon to have as much damage output as possible to quickly kill a single target enemy champion in less than a second. Since we are playing crit talon here, I have put a point into Frenzy in order to deal more crit damage per second. I have also put points into every mastery that increases his attack damage% like Warlord Havoc Blade Weaving Double-Edged Sword and Executioner . Why? Talon's E cutthroat increases damage dealt to the target champion by 15% for the next 3 seconds. Combined with these masteries and crit% damage, Talon will basically cut anything (yordles, creeps, adc)to shreds in a matter of seconds! Therefore, these masteries are a must have on Talon.

ABILITIES

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Q: Noxian Diplomacy

ACTIVE: Talon's next autoattack within the next 6 seconds deals bonus physical damage. If the target is a champion they will also bleed for 6 seconds, revealing their location and taking additional physical damage each second for the duration. BONUS PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 30 / 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 (+ 30% Bonus AD) TOTAL DAMAGE OVER TIME: 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 (+ 100% Bonus AD) TOTAL PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 40 / 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 (+ 130% Bonus AD)

W: Rake

ACTIVE: Talon sends out a volley of daggers in a cone that then quickly return back to him, dealing physical damage to any enemies it passes through. Each enemy can only be damaged once at the start of the ability and once at the end. Additionally the enemy is slowed for 2 seconds, refreshing the duration of the slow if they are hit twice. PHYSICAL DAMAGE PER HIT: 30 / 55 / 80 / 105 / 130 (+ 60% Bonus AD) TOTAL PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 60 / 110 / 160 / 210 / 260 (+ 120% Bonus AD) SLOW: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%

E: Cutthroat cutthroat

ACTIVE: Talon instantly appears behind his target, silencing them for 1 second and amplifying his damage against that target for 3 seconds. DAMAGE AMPLIFICATION: 3 / 6 / 9 / 12 / 15%

R: Shadow Assault

ACTIVE: Talon disperses blades outwards in a 500-radius ring and gains stealth for up to 2.5 seconds while gaining 40% movement speed. When Talon emerges from stealth, the blades converge on his location. When the ring of blades expands and contracts, enemies hit receive physical damage. Each enemy can only be damaged once at the start of the ability and once at the end. PHYSICAL DAMAGE PER HIT: 120 / 170 / 220 (+ 75% Bonus AD) TOTAL PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 240 / 340 / 440 (+ 150% Bonus AD)

SKILL SEQUENCING

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Recommended Skill sequencing:

I chose to get 2 points inQ Noxian Diplomacy and max W Rake first because Rake is the most useful ability to harass the enemy without getting too close to him. since Talon is a melee champion, it will be difficult to harass against long range mages and you will have to use E cutthroat as a gap closer then Q to harass, which waste a lot of mana. So I would choose to max W Rake first early game to harass the fck out of the enemy.

TIPS:

Q: Noxian Diplomacy Main damage output after you build your crit items, you will see how much this hurts once you've tried it.
W: Rake excellent harassing ability, make sure you try to hit the enemies with both waves of the blades
E: cutthroat Only use this ability as a gap closer, do not max this because of that tiny % increase after you land your E.
R: Shadow Assault you can use this to go invisible and escape or deal colossal damage to enemies.

CRITS NOT ARMOR PENETRATION!!!

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As riot nerfed Talon, we can no longer depend on his abilities to do the damage that we need, therefore, I'm introducing the new crit Talon with an all new crit BUILD!

First of all, it is crucial that your Q, Noxian Diplomacy will critically hit, therefore, you will need a lot of critical strike chances.

BUILDING ORDER

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First off, it is clearly impossible to play crit Talon in early game as you don't have enough critical strike chances. Therefore, you need to build normally before building crit items. The order is as follows.
(This is after starting items, possibly first back if you have enough money, feel free to buy more consumables if you feel you don't have enough sustain.)

After getting these items......

It depends on your situation, whether you are fed or not.

If you are NOT fed: Build Frozen Mallet first.

If you are FED: Get Infinity Edge right away.

After that......

You should either finish off your Youmuu's Ghostblade or build a Phantom Dancer for more crit chances. Then, you can get a Trinity Force or Frozen Mallet if you haven't already.

Situational items are NOT Core items, so please don't replace any of the items I mentioned in the above paragraph. If you decides to replace one of the items and you lose, don't blame me for losing because it is a legit build and you are not using it correctly.

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AGAINST HEAVY ARMOR TANKS e.g. Rammus Malphite

Last whisper
You have armor? I don't care. Gives you a massive 35% armor penetration +40 attack damage, very effective against tanks, not bad.


Black Cleaver
It gives you 25% armor penetration at max, +50 attack damage, +10 armor penetration and gives you some health for more survivability. Good item when you need a little bit defenses.


Frozen Mallet
Why this item? BECAUSE OF HIS PASSIVE!!!!
mercy: Talon's autoattacks deal 10% additional damage to any target that is slowed, stunned, immobilized or suppressed.
so every basic attack will deal 10% more damage, and combined with those crits........sweeeeeeettt jesus!!!! It also makes you a little bit harder to kill.

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AGAINST HIGH AP BURST CHAMPS e.g. Akali Orianna

Maw of Malmortius
This item gives you a fair amount of magic resist and attack damage. It also gives you more +1 attack damage for every 2hp you are missing so it means, the more health you are missing, the moar damage (crits) you have :D so don't think +60 damage is the max AD it will give you ;) Plus, the shield it gives you will help a lot in a losing situation.


Mercurial Scimitar
This item is extremely useful if you are against teams with heavy cc as the active removes all debuffs from Talon, with this item, every Zed will rage because of you.


Banshee's Veil
This item offers a lot of defence against AP champs as it gives you 55 magic resist as well as 450 health, the blue ring the appears around your champion will also block the next ability from an enemy champion which means if a Zed ults you while you have the shield on........... The Banshee's Veil is best built against AP enemy teams (or Zed one for all).

Optional

Needless to say, this build has its own Pros and Cons.

So let's take a look on what spells are best on Talon

This is basically the golden rule when playing high damage and squishy champions: This is because it is the most basic human instinct, to defend themselves to whoever attack them. So if you use your E cutthroat to suddenly flash into the middle of the enemy team, they will converge on you like a pack of wild dogs and by the time your team gets to you, you would've been dead and it will be a 4v5 (unless you are lucky and planned it all out). It wouldn't be much use to your team to have their main damage champion dead. So remember the rule, and you will survive longer in team fights.

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Play Style

What kind of champion is Talon?

Talon is an assassin, in other words, he is a high damage champion who should be able to burst down target champions in as quick as 3 seconds. Of course, any person with common sense will know that I am talking about other high damage enemy champions, not tanks, because they are the ones you want to take down first in a fight.

How should I play/ build him?

As your job is to kill people as quick as possible, you should be building tons of damages, and not tanky items like Warmog's Armor or Randuin's Omen. Of course you can always build a bit of defence if you find yourself focused hard in fights, but in my opinion, So tanks should be as tanky as possible, supports should only have Stealth Wards as their items, and ADCs should dish out as much damage as they can per second.

btw, ask your jungler to give you blue buff :3 it's really important.

This section will be very useful on how to counter your enemy mid, even if they counter you:D

Ahri

1. Stay behind minions, it's better to get hit by her Orb of Deception than her Charm.
2. Wait until she has used her skills to harass her.
3. it's dangerous to use E cutthroat because the silence only lasts 3 seconds. So do all the damage you can on her and leave, don't waste ult if you can't kill her and don't get greedy.
4. try to dodge Orb of Deception when it flies back to Ahri because it deals true damage.
5. If she uses her ult and tries to kill you, use your ult to go invisible. If you can kill her, use E cutthroat to flash behind her so that all the blades from your Shadow Assault will hit her thus silencing her for 3 seconds, making her extremely vulnerable. Use those 3 seconds well and you should be able to finish her off.

Kassadin

1. Stay away from him, his Null Sphere circle ball of purple silencing hurts a lot and in my opinion it's just like the AP version of Pantheon's Spear Shot.
2. Don't get caught in his Force Pulse because you will be slowed and it will usually be followed by a Null Sphere so you will be vulnerable for at least 2 seconds. By the time you managed to get back under tower, you will have lost a chunk of health.
3. Try to be the more aggressive and dominant and use E cutthroat more often because that is pretty much the only way you can harass him without him silencing you first. The only advantage you have is that your silence is 1 second longer than his so you will still have a chance to retaliate after he silenced you.
4. Another advantage is that you are AD, with crits :D. So don't worry if he silenced you, you can still use your basic attacks to deal massive damage :D (even when you are in early game).

Tip:When Kassadin used gap closer and silenced you, do not be afraid, get close to him and use your basic attack to do damage on him in that 2 seconds then do a full combo assault to burst down his a55. You can also use the combo I mentioned in lanning against Ahri

Fizz

1. Fizz's usual combo is Urchin Strike to dash to your location and use Playful / Trickster to dodge any attacks and slow. Therefore, do not panic and use Rake after he dashed to you because he will use that combo to dodge it (unless he is a real noob).
2. And again, the only way to perform a full combo is to E cutthroat first so that Fizz won't be able to do anything.
3. If Fizzlanded his ult, Chum the Waters on you, don't bother using Shadow Assault because he will be able to see you anyways. Instead, try to get as far away from fizz as possible.
4. Perform R Shadow Assault and W Rake immediately after landing E cutthroat because that's the only time when Fizz won't be able to dodge your attacks unless he's got Flash
5. Just keep distance with Fizz you never know what that crazy fish will do.

Malzahar

Before I talk about anything about lanning tips, I just want to say f*ck this champion, and curse Riot for creating him. You are very likely to lose against malzahar unless you are a very good mid laner.

1. First of all, STAY MILES AWAY FROM HIM, his main harrasses will be Call of the Void which silences you and Malefic Visions. He will probably keep spamming these skills until you are on very low health. His Call of the Void does a surprising amount of damage and you will be shocked at how burst Malzahar can be.
2. You damages are significantly less than Malzahar in the early game and it's usually in the late game where you have the AD advantages (lifesteal, armor penetration, tons of damages from basic attacks) to take down Malzahar. So even if you use the cutthroat combos, Malzahar will still be able to deal more damage on you afterwards in the early game (unless that Malzahar is a pu55y).
3. It is safer to farm under tower early game than to try and harass Malzahar because the range of Malzahar's skills will make sure you stay the fck away from him. And Malzahar will always end up trading more damages so it's not really worth harassing him.
4. I guess the only safe time to harass will be when Malzahar runs out of mana.

Tip: You will be able to get him late game providing none of your teammates or yourself feed him :p. Also, you must definitely buy magic resist against Malzahar because if he ults you, not only does it deal a hell of a lot damage but it also suppresses you and that means you won't be able to do a thing. Mercurial Scimitar will be useful as its passive can remove Malzahar's suppression.

Zed

1. When playing against Zed, it is very important to predict his movement and skill shots because that is where his main damages come from.
2. Zed has very long range harasses, What Zed players will often do is send out their Living Shadow and throwing a Razor Shuriken to increase the range so you might have a split second to see in which direction did Zed send out his Living Shadow and try to dodge them.
3. You will want to stay away from the shadows. When I play Zed, what I mostly see is people thinking that the shadows are harmless once they've thrown out the Razor Shuriken you do not want to think that, they are called Living Shadow for a reason. Not only can it mimic Razor Shurikens, it can also mimic Shadow Slash. If you are caught by the shadow's Shadow Slash, you will be slowed and Zed can instantly teleport to the shadow to do some damage on you. However, you can also grab this chance to cutthroat him and trade damages.
4. In normal situations, Talon is not burst enough to take down a Zed. Believe me, I have tried, and building normally (armor penetration) will not help. This is one of the reasons for the existence of this guide. So you will want to play safe, trade damage when you can because if you try to kill him, he can always use his Living Shadow to teleport to safety. So you might want to do this with a jungler unless you have enough skills.

Tip: You will be able to take down Zed in late game once you have enough crits. Just avoid feeding him early game because he can become incredibly OP late game.

Final word of advice:

Lanning is actually one of the easiest part of the game. The basic thing you need to do is farm, push turrets and not die. That's is practically the only thing you have to do in lanning phase. Other things are just nice bonuses that will assist you later in game. But here are a few rules that I play by when I'm in lane.

Keep distance

Not too close, you will have space to dodge skill shots and avoid enemy using a gap closer on you. If the enemy does use a gap closer on you, at least you will be closer to your own turret. Plus, you never know when the enemy jungler is going to gank. And not too far, you don't want to miss the minion experiences.

Last hit

You don't have to keep hitting a minion so that it dies faster, although this is a pushing game, you do not want to push too far and hard. Just hit the minion when its health is low enough. Also you won't be able to farm much if you have pushed up to their turrets and all the minions are under enemy turret with your enemy laner and it will be easy for the jungler to gank (unless you stay back, but then you will be missing the exp from the minions.) Try to "freeze" a lane so that the waves of minions are not getting pushed to your own turret nor to the enemy's turret.

Balance between farming and harassing

You don't want to just farm and get harassed by enemy team while trying to last hit. You want to let the enemy laner know your threat to them, tell them to stay back when you get close, and you need to establish that status by harassing/ trading damage well.

Mana usuage

Unless you are a manaless champion, you should always watch how much mana you are using. in my opinion, you should only use your skills to harass if an enemy is in lane. You will always have to recall if you run out of mana and if you don't, you won't be able to use your skills if your enemy attack you.

Ward

You don't want enemy junglers catching you by surprise or camping your lane.

In order to counter Riot's nerf, I have come up with this wonderful build for everybody in the game to enjoy, including you nubs ;). Thanks to this build, Talon will now deal 9000 more damage than before and crit everybody to oblivion. And finally, thank you for reading this guide, if it wasn't for you Talon players out there, I wouldn't have created this guide :D. Hopefully this will help you a lot in game and don't forget, Gl, Hf!