Overall I think Talon is a very fun champion. I have recently been playing him top lane, and found that if you play it correctly, he is a rather strong champ. My solo queue rating is bad because I never play solo queue, only to duo with my friends (who are most of the time worse than me). Hopefully you have success playing Talon in the Top Lane. (For any who are skeptical of Talon in the top lane, Doublelift(LiftLift) used to do it often.)

Pros:

+ High Damage
+ Good Poke in Lane
+ Hard to Kill
+ Fun

Cons:

- Rough Lane from 1 - 5
- Squishy Without Items
- Not a Solo Carry

Levels 1 - 5

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Levels 1 - 5 are probably the hardest levels for Talon. Your poke is okay, but it's kinda mana heavy and Rake doesn't do much damage until level 3 (champion level 5). Try to use Rake for farming if you are against a strong laning opponent (Riven, Renekton, Lee Sin). If not against a crush-you laning opponent, try to aim your Rakes so that they both farm and harass as much as possible. Your whole goal during this phase is to keep within 4/5 cs, and get them to low enough health to 1-combo them at level 6. (NOTE : Do NOT spam Rake, as you will run out of mana, even with the crystalline flask. You need enough mana to pull off your full combo @ level 6. If you feel you will be backing before then, then trying to get off as many Rakes as possible.)

Levels 6 - 11

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Life gets a little easier here, you have to dominate your lane opponent at this point, ask for a gank from your jungler to try and grab a kill. You need to either out-farm your opponent by a large amount, or kill them often in order to snowball your advantage, which is important as talon. Your mana regen should be high enough that you can spam Rake more often. When they are at about half hp. E -> AA -> Q -> W -> R -> Ignite should kill them, using this combo when they are at higher health may only knock them out of lane. (Not bad, but sub-optimal.) Once you get ahead by a few kills or 40-60 cs, grab Mobility Boots and try to roam mid, or shove your lane and invade the jungle with your jungler.

Levels 12 - 18

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You should be a tanky-damage monster at this point. Your goal in teamfights is to assassinate the high priority targets. Full combo the ADC or APC, and try to knock them out of the fight at the very least. Spam Rake whenever it's up and Flash out if you get low. As to who to target first? Unless one or the other is extremely fed, focus the one with the least hp, as he/she will die faster, and you can turn your attention to other targets. It is hard to kill a Talon played right. Between a Warmogs, a silencing dash, your flash, and cloak, you shouldn't die in many teamfights.

Here is a list of top lane champions who hard/soft counter Talon:

Soft Counter

> Elise - More of a skill matchup here. If you can avoid getting poked down, you can burst her @ level 6 and win the lane. Farm with Rake.

> Kha'Zix - Tons of poke / healing, does lots of damage. He is like Talon 2.0, hard to beat, try to dodge abilities and use your silence wisely.

> Pantheon - Will try to out poke you early, don't get harassed too hard and power through those potions. Poke him when you can and try to kill him @ level 6; his ultimate is less useful for fighting than yours is.

> Shen - Chills in lane and farms. He is an energy based champion with a shield... Not fun. He doesn't do alot of burst however, so you should be able to live in the laning phase.

> Tryndamere - All comes down to how many crits he gets. He's hard to kill at level 6, but you can push him out of lane if you harass him hard enough. Spam Rake and stay out of auto range.

Hard Counter

> Darius - Does a ridiculous amount of damage, and landing your W without him pulling you in is difficult. His blood also ruins your laning phase. Becomes extremely tanky.

> Cho'Gath - Eats all of your poke; becomes ridiculously tanky to the point where you can't burst him down.

> Lee Sin - He has plenty of reveals that ruin your ultimate, he eats harass with his W, and his gap closer makes you tons easier to catch. I would NOT recommend playing Talon against a Lane Sin.

> Renekton / Riven - Will push their early advantage and try to kill you early, surviving becomes difficult. Riven is only slightly easier to play against, because of the lack of such an easy double-gap-closer. Try to survive the lane, get jungle ganks to help.

> Yorick - Farms for ages, never gets harassed down, becomes full tank... Not much you can do against a Yorick other than kill him when he's low on mana. Hide in the brushes for as much of the laning phase as you can, only coming out to grab cs.