Hi, I am SteveAlanB, a Diamond player from EUNE.
In this introduction i will tell you why Talon: Because the enemy team has at least 1 squishy target,the ADC. It's Talon's job to make sure he doesn't deal damage in teamfights.



In this introduction i will tell you why Talon: Because the enemy team has at least 1 squishy target,the ADC. You will make ADC's want to stop playing after you kill them a couple of times.

You will make ADC's want to stop playing after you kill them a couple of times.
Also, Talon is more than an assassin. In the right conditions he can also deal a lot of AOE damage on the whole enemy team if you can get in the right position.
His kit makes it hard for the enemy team deal with him. they will need pre-placed pinks around objectives and good general vision control of the area you are in.
The unseen Talon is the deadliest.

Pros

+ Hard Snowball + Huge Damage + AOE + Low ult CD + Does his job even if behind + Decent laning phase tools + Also a fighter + Great roamer + Good ganker + Mid-Game GOD

But there's always a downside.

Cons

+ Weak early + Item reliant + Unable to 1v1 tanks (usually) + Hard to escape ganks before 6 + Falls off a little late-game + Is very vision dependant

Ok i have 5/15 rune pages dedicated to Talon.

Must-have runes are 9xArmor penetration marks and 3xAttack damage Quints.

On Seals and Glyphs there are a LOT of possible combinations depending on your play-style and match-up.
Vs AD mid you can get armor Glyphs, which will get you started on ~ 40 armor, max 42 if u take 9xArmor seals.
VS AP mid you can also get full Magic rezistance on both Seals and Glyphs. This is particularly effective vs burst-ish mages like Leblanc or Annie.
If you do not plan to go Essence Reaver + Infinity edge for 40% CDR you can get CDR or CDR per level Glyphs. Do this ONLY if you are confident in the matchup.

But if you do not intend to use more rune-pages for talon i recommend the one i showed in the build.

You have 2 choices here: 18.12.0 or 18.0.12.
I say this because the Deathfire Touch on Talon will make enemies lose their hope and die in flames :)

You can go 18.12.0 for the 5% bonus dmg on < 40% health champions, or you can go 18.0.12 for the additional movement speed (in river, which is usually warded) and for Veteran Scars (3% health sounds pretty good indeed).

But let me say this again: Deathfire Touch is the must-have key-stone


I have considered going 12.18.0 for the key-stone that gives you movement speed after you deal 30% of the health of a champion. It's good, especially if you want get mobility boots instead of swiftness for whatever reason, but i believe Deathfire Touch is still better, because it might make the difference between a kill and a succesfull escape of your enemy, and early, that matters a lot.

Skilling Order

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Depending on your match-up, this changes a little though.
If you are going against a melee champion you should definitely get q 2nd, because it will win you most trades.
If you are going against a heavy poke champion, get "w e w" , because that w damage is the only way you can poke him, since Talon doesn't have a lot of damage early, so engaging on a ranged full-health enemy might not be what you want

This will help you escape, engage and track down people. I can;t think of an item more important than this for an Assasin

Tiamat(and implicitly hydra) helps your waveclear...a LOT. It's active acts almost as an AA reset and the passive gives you a decent sustain.

Get this if you are afraid you will be killed without the right to fight back. Very effective agains mages like Leblanc or Fizz, who don;t deal a lot of damage in the seconds after they have used their abilities

If you want to engage on the enemy team because you see someone caught out of position, don't do it unless you have this item and good reflexes. Gives Magic Rezistance, AD and Lifesteal. And the active will save you countless times.

This works great with Essence Reaver after the changes. You can get 40% crit and 40% CDR from only 2 items.

Since they now removed the mana potions, unless you have blue, you will run out of mana pretty fast, especially if you (for whatever reason splitpush mid-game) Paired with Infinity Edge, this will make sure you won't pe OOOOMM when the enemy comes to greet you

This item is pretty good on Talon. Gives a little survivability, decent damage, and the most important part: your Q fully applies ALL stacks on the Black Cleaver, because the bleed is damage over time.

If you are really ahead, then you can get this item and become a SelfSustainable monster. You deal a LOT of AOE, and thanks to this item you will get A LOT of health back (even thought it says 33%,it's more than enough)

If you want to be able to e+aa+q and kill the adc, this is the item you get. I don't recommend this item in normal circumstances, but it is definitely strong on talon.

I don't particularly get this item in my games, but vs heavy Healing(Soraka,Swain) Executioners Calling is decent.

GA might be worth it if your team is really ahead and you can afford to engage on the enemy team; but normally you should wait for the fight to start, or catch people out of position.

I DO NOT recommend you to take LW anymore. It only reduces bonus armor now. You can take it if the ADC has an armor item, but even then it might not be worth it.

As for the build order it's at the top of the build

Summoners

When to take it

Q: Flash

// ALWAYS

Q: Ignite

// When you don't take TP or cleanse

Q: Teleport

// If you are against a REALLY hard to kill opponent in lane, for example a Cho'gath. You can't hope to possible solo-kill him, so most of the times the best thing to do is wait for the jungle and farm as good as you can.

Q: Cleanse

// I almost never take this summoner. The only time this can be good on talon is against a Malzahar mid for example, but even then, just wait for the jungler to come. You can take it, but i don't really recommend it. Mid to Late game this summoner is easily replaced by a QSS.

I don't recommend you to take ANY other summoner spell (unless it's Smite and you are going jungle Talon-btw it works)

Ok, now some basic "how to" and "how not to" farm.

1st thing 1st, you must know how to farm under tower. Almost all mid match-ups will posh the first 3 or 5 waves all the way up to your tower.After they do that, they will back and try to make the wave slow push to them(if they are smart enough to think of it).

That is the reason you should try not to poke your enemy with w if he is in the cs wave. You will push the wave, and if the timing is right he will be able to freeze the wave just outside his tower, denying you a lot of creeps and placing you in the ganking danger-zone.

This all depens on how your enemy is playing of course, but most high-elo players will definitely try to deny you as many cs as they can by pushing the lane when the jungler shows on the map/ freezing it when they think they might be in danger.

After you get Tiamat however(i recommend you get it 2nd item) wave-clear literally becomes a walk-in-the-park. All you have to do is w then use Tiamat and all the minions die. You should still be carefull because your opponent might wait for you to use them, then engage.

Also, Talon is a VERY strong splitpusher thanks to his w and Tiamat (waveclear), but also thanks to his kit. Youmuu's Ghostblade + Shadow Assault gives you a nice escape, and as long as you have some wards on the map they should't be able to flank you without you knowing. And even if they do, that requires a minimum of 3 people, leaving the other group 4v2 in favour of your team. If your teammates are smart, they will take advantage of that and group for objectives.

ok.....Most Talon players have 2 big flaws: they don't know when to engage and they don't know how to combo properly. Unfortunatelly i can't help you with the 1st one, because knowing Talon's damage at different stages in the game/with different items comes with eperience, but the combos... well... i can explain that.

There are 4 main combos on talon if you ask me (i am talking about FULL combos, where you use EVERYTHING you have)

Normal
COMBO:

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> e+aa+q+w+tiamat+aa+ult

Where did he come from ??
COMBO:

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> ult + youmuu's +e aa q w

Hod did i die?? Please nerf Talon RITO
COMBO:

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> e+aa+..+aa+w+aa+ult+aa+q+tiamat
Ok i know this might give you a headache, but here's how this goes:
You e your opponnent and aa him until you get him to around 50-70% of his life( here talon damage, learned from playing talon comes in). Once you are confident the rest of your abilities will finish him, you w, then aa, then ult,then aa+q+tiamat.
WHY ?? Because if you are able to time it right, the w back, aa+q or q+tiamat and the ult back will hit almost at once, taking the opponent to zero, maybe without him being able to use his flash( or ekko ult for example, i actually pulled this off in plat). You will basically give him a really low reaction time to counterplay your burst.
WHY NOT ?? Because I have 400k Talon games and i still miss the exact timing and the opponent and he gets away/uses zhonias. I make it work ~ 75% of the time

I am fed AF
COMBO:

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> e+q+ult+walk away+w
When you don;t have the time to get your full combo off, but you are sure you can at least get him low enough to make him leave. Works really well when you single out a target in team fights and you don't want to die after. If you are ahead, this combo will easily kill a squishy target.