Hi, my name is Isillien and today I will be giving you my personal view and build on the latest bad-*** assassin character; Talon.

Note that this will be my first guide here on Mobafire; please go easy on me. :)

So the minute I got online and bought him, I set up a rune page and masteries to try and have some fun with him.

I noticed some guides online already always suggesting to rush for a Frozen mallet.

Now this made no sense to me, since Talon isn't much of an auto-attack champion.
Sure, it's easy to hit them right after you blink ontop of them, but still, it didn't completely add up to me.

Looking at his skills, I immediately noticed a very simple chain of skills to use against enemies; Jump them with E, hit them with W; Q and Ult. If they're still alive after that, they're probably stacking health, or you don't have enough damage. :P

Playing him my first game, was probably the most fun I've had in LoL in some time.
And it was also quite fun to have people raging at you already.
Now I know most of you are probably going to say that Talon is OP and Easy to play.
I'm not going to deny that, because he is indeed very strong, and easy to play (mostly).

Runes and masteries are pretty standard for an assasssin type character.

Could go for Armor seals if you prefer those, but I prefer the mana regen, since this allows me to use my skills more often and get gold, for the first ultimate goal; Trinity Force.
If you guys think something else would be better or benefit Talon more, please share your oppinion so I can do some testing and see how well it works for me.

+++++++
Pros
+++++++

+ Alot and high burst damage
+ Squishy-killer
+ Anti-carry
+ Ult that can get you out of trouble
+ ALOT of fun to play

---

Cons

---

- Can be quite squishy
- With my build; pretty slow early game.
- Easily shut down by CC

I start out with Rake(w). This is an awesome tool for last hitting and harassing your enemy. With it's low mana cost you can use it quite often before you have to go back for mana.

At level 2 I grab Cutthroat(e). This will allow me to do some quick harras onto my opponent.
After this I always level Rake first, and Noxian Diplomacy when Rake is maxed, ofcourse taking the Shadow Assault(Ult) whenever you can.

When I'm going to attack an enemy, I always jump on them with Cutthroat, and make it a point to auto-attack once first with Trinity Force's sheen component, before I hit them with Rake.
After I have hit the opponent with Rake, I once again with for an auto-attack for the Sheen component. After this happened, I hit them with Noxian Diplomacy, which will trigger Trinity Force again, and deal alot of extra damage on the same attack.
If the opponent still lives after that, use Shadow Assault, either double tap it for alot of damage, or walk infront of your opponent and then hitting them, making the blades come through him/her and do alot of damage.

As Talon, I start out with Boots of Speed and 3 Health potions.
After that I start working towards my Trinity Force by grabbing Sheen on my first go back; if I cannot do this, and my lane is having alot of harassment going around, I will go for Phage instead.

My second item will be either Sheen or Phage and continue farming creeps and dip into the jungle for some more creep kills when possible. I try to get enough gold to complete my Trinity Force right away, if I cannot do that, ofcourse pick up Zeal.

When you have completed your Trinity Force, you really start to rock the field.
Just make it a point to always auto-attack in between using skills, so Sheen constantly gets activated for maximum damage output.

After Trinity Force is completed, I complete my level 2 boots. Usually I go for Ionian Boots of Lucidity, for the cooldown reduction, but if the enemy team is CC heavy, I go for Mercury's Treads.

Next up is a Brutalizer. The extra attack damage and cooldown reduction will greatly help your farm. After this I get a Vampiric Scepter for some Lifesteal.

The next step might or might not take a while to get; A Bloodthirster.
This boost of Attack damage will greatly increase your damage and farm ability, aswell as alot of lifesteal.

After I completed my Bloodthirster, I upgrade my Brutalizer into a Youmuu's Ghostblade. This is a great all-round item for melee characters. Someone getting away form you? Activate it if you think you can catch up with it, and cut them to pieces.

After that, I go for a Phantom Dancer; sure, it's not the best option for Talon, but I personally like the movement speed boost it gives me.

I haven't actually been able to pick up a 6th item on Talon yet, in the games I have played.
But for a last item, I would probably got for a Banshee's Veil if they have alot of CC, or maybe something that'll give you another good active effect, like Randuin's Omen.

If you think you don't need any of these items, then get something for more damage output.

Last picks are generally pretty personal and game dependant, in fact, most items are.

(Note, in the games I have played I have pretty much always taken Berserker's Greaves, but thinking about it, the Cooldown reduction or CC-reducement would probably be more effective.)

Creeping in lane is quite easy, just focus on last hitting with auto-attack, or if you are getting harassed and cannot get into melee range, just simply last hit with Rake(w).
With it's low mana cost you should be able to rack up quite some gold with it.
You can also ofcourse use Rake to harass with.

I usually don't really harass my opponents untill I have my basic skill combo; E, W, Q.

After you get Phage and Sheen, you could actually jungle around a bit aswell, getting Red/Blue buff for more skill-spamming and an easier slow to follow up with your E.

Farming is quite easy as Talon aswell. When you get Rake up to level 5, you can easily take out a minion wave, just make sure you attack the caster minions first before you use Rake on the wave.

Other then that, just play it safe and focus on last hitting, because you really want to get your Trinity Force as fast as possible (I usually get it around level 11, which is pretty nice).

When fighting team fights, you really want to focus on that squishy support or the other teams squishy carry.

Jump on them with your E, position yourself so that your W will hit most of the enemy team.
Before you use your ultimate, make sure you're in the dead center of the fight, to ensure maximum damage from the blades going out, and kite along your target to ensure all the blades hitting your target again once you exit stealth.

For summoner spells, I chose Flash and Exhaust.

Flash is just an all-round awesome skill, for getting in and out of fights, hopping over walls to escape a gank.

Exhaust will help you, and your team by hitting it on that heavy hitting AD carry that's ripping apart your squishy.
Ofcourse it'll also help you 1v1.
If you know the person you are 1v1'ing also has exhaust and has it up for use, make sure you use it AFTER they use it on you, if you can. Atleast that's what I always do, and mostly come out as the victor; there's no point in both using it, then you both won't hit each other. While tanking some damage, then Exhausting them and releasing your devastating combo onto them will do alot more damage.

As for other spells, I haven't tried them personally, but I'll try my best analizing them for Talon.

Ghost; This one might be good for running away or catching up. But for running away; as in escaping ganks, I find Flash a better use, since you can jump over walls or something like that. And as for catching up, we also have Youmuu's Ghostblade and alot of speed increasing items.

Ignite; You shouldn't really need Ignite. There has been VERY few opponents who got away after I unleashed my combo onto them. If this does happen, better luck next time.

Teleport; With my build, you get around the map fast enough, and shouldn't really need it. Since Talon can't really tank a tower, backdooring with Teleport would be pretty redundant aswell.

Cleanse; Cleanse could work if the enemy team is EXTREMELY CC heavy, but I personally don't run with this spell, since I could just easily pick up a Quicksilver Sash and get the same effect with more benefits.

Well, I'll end it for today, I think this is enough of a wall of text for you guys to read.

I did not use the item and skill tags because I don't like them, they mess up the neatness of guides, and I want mine ot be easily read-able for you guys.

As far as Talon goes;

He's a fun champion. He's very strong, but also pretty squishy.
To play him succesfully, you'll have to have map awareness, and you have to know what fights to get into, and which ones to avoid.

Game phases:
Laning; just focus on last hitting and some harassment to enemies.
Once you get Trinity Force, go for ganks.
Lategame; Destroy anyone you see out of place and go after the stragglers after teamfights.

And ofcourse, be nice to your fellow summoners; we're all here to enjoy the game.