1) You still get hit by **** in mid. cutthroat silence is only 1.5 seconds while the cooldown is around 14 seconds. There's a chance of getting hit by an enemy spell within those 12 seconds. MR helps vs. AP based champions, hands down.

2) Probably you disagree with me on combos because of w maxing. If you max q, w is used solely for the slow and 10% mercy proc. q makes for the damage. Also, I can't get why you say that with q you have no harassment. 240 damage every 6 seconds (considering you let your q work to the full duration of DoT effect.) is a lot. As for Rake, more or less better players can dodge it, unless you use cutthroat (which you would use with your q anyways)


3) Why Doran's? Overall cost is 1425. Comparable to Sheen's 1260 or The Brutalizer's 1337, I'd say...

Well, lets compare what you get.

Doran's Blades

• 300 Health
• 30 AD
• 9% lifesteal

These are all ESSENTIAL stats for early game laning. Combined with Vampirism you have 12% lifesteal and should have around 110-120 AD based on rune choices.

Sheen

• A proc, upon using spells. Every 2 seconds you deal 150% of your BASE AD as additional damage.
• 250 mana
• 25 AP HUEHUEHEUEHUEHUEHUE

I believe this is quite useless on Talon early game. You don't really spam spells yet and there is no damage/health/lifesteal bonuses. Makes for a weak lane, imo.


Lastly, The Brutalizer

• 25 AD
• 15 armor pen.
• 10% CDR

These are cool stats to have. But as soon as you are getting fought back, you're screwed. You can't run on very low hp as Talon, as you are expected to take damage.
And what's a use of CDR when you know that as soon as you use your cutthroat, the damn Lee Sin comes out of the jungle and kicks you in the face?
Without any lane sustain of health bonus already in possesion, The Brutalizer seems fairly weak on Talon for me.


Imo, any of these two (I used to get both) items should be bought after Doran's Blades




4) I saw that you listed all of these choices as situational, but imo, Ionian Boots of Lucidity should be situational (not Mercs) because unless their team consists of complete bads, they will know how to shut down Talon with CC.
Same with other choices like Ignite (which I believe takes priority over TP) or Triforce.

Thanks for your comments, They are certainly insightful, and I am more than happy to respond to them (btw thanks for being polite and constructive, really helps)

First of all I do recomend Ignite in this guide, commenting that it is completely viable, but not my personal choice to play ( Exhaust, Ghost, Teleport, and Flash are all listed too as completely viable). I also said in the guide that it makes perfect sense to skip over the mallet and head right to the Trinity Force or a Bloodthirster. These are just my choices after testing both of the items first, although I understand your point and agree with your logic, I personally play with this build after doing extensive play testing

Also I strongly disagree with stacking doran's blades on Talon. It takes too much time and money to build them up and would rather rush a The Brutalizer or my boots as opposed to getting more doran's blades

Also thank you for the information about sheen. I did not know that and will be correcting my guide to accurately display it. Thanks very much for that information.

I also agree that maxing Noxian Diplomacy is very viable on Talon, but it doesn't offer any good harassment on him. I feel that it would be better to harass them with rake and then burst them down with a combo (where as maxing diplomacy first will give you more nuking power and less harass, but it more often then not just pushes them out of lane as opposed to killing them. I find it better to bide my time with harassment then just constantly pushing them out of lane).

As for initiating with rake, I will have to strongly disagree with you. Cutthroat will also amply the damage from your noxian diplomacy, and saving rake for laster use in the combo will either allow you to finish what little health they have left or escape a potentially nasty *** beating. Also if you lead in with a rake they will have a brief chance to respond with a spell, where as initiating with cutthroat eliminates that option.

Also, magic resistance is fairly useless on Talon. The whole point of him is to silence enemy casters, so if you are getting caught by them then you might want to rethink your entry strategy when entering team fights. If later in the game you are being focused, then yes you should probably sell ionian boots for mercury's treads (which was also put in the guide).

Thank you very much for all the points you made. I will be testing some of them out to see if they work better than what I currently have written here. Please feel free to respond with any more suggestions as they would be greatly appreciated.

No! No >< Just no...

Not going to downvote or anything like this, but I absolutely disagree with this build.

• Talon is created for countering mages in mid lane. It's an AD version of Kassadin.
  Your early game should be build about magic resist, not armour.
  
• Defense tree? 3 more manaregen is definitely a lot xD I'd prefer MR + health + health/level.
  Buff duration is nice though. I see that reasoning, unless your jungler is being a jerk, it's probably worth it.
  
  
• Where is your Ignite? :D It's just so good for Talon. If you never tried it, do so asap.
  
  
• Why on earth do you need Ionian Boots of Lucidity? I swear, only character whom I might ever get this for is Lux with her 24 second cooldown trollface ultimate.
  Mercury's Treads are invaluable for Talon who faces a lot of magic damage and is targeted by crowd control during the whole game.
  Not to mention that they are the best boots in game :D
  
  
• Frozen Mallet, not Trinity Force?
  fml if you didn't just say that Talon is a quintessential burst assasin. Frozen Mallet gives you more slow (passive procs) and some health.
  Well, tell me, why the hell would you need that health anyways if you are supposed to burst and gtfo?
  By building Trinity Force you boost yourself so much more throughout the whole game...
  Basically, getting TF means:
  • Early Sheen. Should I say more?
  • Bonus movespeed and AS + still a chance to proc slow
  • Amazing mid game damage boost.
  • 30 AP HUEHUEHUEHUEHUE
  
  Still prefer 10% extra damage that you will be getting from the Rake slow anyways? Meh.
  
  ALSO, please understand, I saw that you list TF in your official build, but it comes LAST.
  That's a wtf moment to me. Build one of the strongest Talon items last? That's interesting.
  
  
• Why don't you stack Doran's Blades? Strongest thing on Talon ever. Followed up by Sheen and The Brutalizer is just deadly.
  
  
• Quoted:

  This item ( Sheen) will eventually build into a Trinity Force, but until then I only use it for its on hit effect. If you use Cutthroat, your next autoatack will hit for 150% of the damage it would have, and if you activate Noxian Diplomacy after that, then Sheen will trigger again and by the time it hits (since Noxian Diplomacy is considered a basic attack) it will deal 150% of the damage on that. This item has so much synergy with Talon it's stupid, and it is one of the best items with him (it also helps alleviate his mana problems)
  
  
  This is not true. Sheen amplifies BASE ATTACK DAMAGE. Bonus AD and/or on-hit effects do not receive a 150% boost.
  
  
• Maxing Rake first is a problem with all the builds on this site, imo...
  Wanna be a great lane pusher? No idea why people take it. Noxian Diplomacy deal so much more damage early game (considering your can use it twice within the same time that your Rake would take to cool down)
  Also, you can't miss the Noxian Diplomacy and it doesn't devastate your mana bar so hard.
  If you last-hit with Rake, that's a problem. Since it will eat up your mana and you will have to sit there mana-less without posing any threat to your opponent.
  tl;dr W first is for bads, in my opinion.
  
• Your combos don't make sense to me... Wouldn't you want to initiate with Rake into cutthroat to get maximum damage amplifiers for Noxian Diplomacy and Shadow Assault?
  
  
• Overall, I don't get the CDR business with him. What's a big deal of having extra 10 seconds of cooldown on the ult late game?
  Isn't it better to get extra 50 MR and not get raped by LeBlanc?
  I mean yeah, you can enjoy your spells being up while respawning after being killed by the AP carry, but I just don't find it fun. Maybe it's just noob me...
  
  
  
  TL;DR I need to make a Talon guide xD It's just so much different from how I used to play him.
  I tried this playstyle when he first came out (it seems logic in theory, but actually isn't as good), but I never play him this way anymore.
  
  
  P.S. Don't take it as an offense. I just pointed out what I don't like personally. I may be a complete fool, after all ;)
  
  EDIT: the downvote isn't mine. I still have to make my mind about this. Will check back with you sometime :)