Currently this guide is still a work in progress. I hope to add detailed sections regarding combos, more detailed information about Talon's abilities and how to use them, tips on how to play the early/mid/late game, completing the counters section for almost every mid matchup Talon faces, etc. As well, I hope to be able to massively improve the formatting of this guide to make it significantly neater and better organized.

Thank you for taking your time and looking at this guide regardless and reading this far. I hope to work on it even more extensively very soon!

Hello! Currently, the written section of this guide (everything below here) is more or less a work in progress in some form of it. In terms of the abilities, runes and items section, they're more or less complete. Everything else I'm still adding more info.

I should mention however that everything above this section (as in the builds, runes, and counters/synergies section) is finished and up to date with the current patch.

Besides all that, once I'm able to add in all the information I'm hoping to add, I plan to do a complete graphical overhaul of this guide to make it extra fancy and pleasing to look at.

In the mean time, thank you for taking the time to look at and read this guide! I've put a lot of effort into it, and giving it a positive rating would help me out greatly.

TBA SOON

ABOUT ME

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Greetings! I'm cor, but I also go by tozosi occasionally. I'm a Talon OTP on EUW with over 400k+ mastery points, and he has been by far my favorite and most played champ in League. I first picked him up around the same time I first started playing this game, and I haven't stopped since. You can find my opgg here. Through this guide, I hope you're able to obtain a good grasp on how to play Talon and really everything you could ever want to know regarding him. I've worked extensively on this guide, an giving it a positive rating would be greatly appreciated. Without further ado, let's begin the guide.

ABOUT TALON Talon is traditionally an AD mid lane assassin renown for his strong early game, high burst damage output, and his insane roaming ability with Assassin's Path. Talon excels at abusing his early game to snowball leads for his whole team while shutting down enemy carries and squishies, most often the ADC, later into the game. As a result of this, Talon almost always plays quite aggressive, especially outside of lane, to pick up any lead which he can snowball. Talon shines during the early-mid game phases at finding picks, carrying skirmishes, and even team fights if he's ahead enough, but begins to fall off towards late game. Talon is also incredibly unique in the fact that, if he doesn't want to be played as an assassin, he can also be played as a bruiser that can still dish out large amounts of damage while having much more survivability in teamfights. This ability to choose your playstyle based on the team you're playing against is very similar in the way that Kayn can choose to go either Shadow Assassin (blue Kayn) or Rhaast (red Kayn). I'll discuss more on this later in the guide.

PROS AND CONS

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There's many reasons to pick up Talon right now in Season 11. Here's a short list of some pros and cons of Talon currently:

PROS - Low banrate - Can be played as an assassin or bruiser - Great roaming ability - Easily able to flank in fight - Very strong in solo queue - Strong early game

CONS - Vulnerable to crowd control - Feast or famine - No crowd control in kit - Generally weak in lane - AD mid laner - Falls of late game

WHEN TO PICK TALON

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When picking Talon, depending on your elo, you generally want to think about your own team comp. Often times, the mid laner tends to be the main source of AP damage in a team. Since Talon is an AD mid laner, this can sometimes lead to your own team comp being full AD. This can pose a significant problem, and if you know your team comp will be full AD, you may want to consider choosing an AP champion over Talon.

As well, you should also consider if your team has another AD assassin on your team, such as Kha'Zix or Rengar. Generally if your team has two AD assassins like this, then the enemy team will almost certainly stack armor early if they have any brain cells. As a result, you'll end up doing little damage. This is especially an issue if you're playing assassin/electrocute Talon, but not as much if you're playing bruiser/conqueror Talon (though still not ideal).

PASSIVE - BLADE'S END

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DESCRIPTION: Talon's spells Wound champions and large monsters, stacking up to 3 times. When Talon attacks a champion with 3 stacks of Wound, they bleed for heavy damage over time.

Blade's End is what makes Talon's entire kit work. The way you use your abilities almost entirely revolves around being able to proc his passive. This is because it accounts for much of Talon's damage early game and is the sole reason Talon has one of the strongest early games in the whole game. Note that auto attacks won't add a stack of his passive, but only auto attacks will proc it.

Q - NOXIAN DIPLOMACY

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DESCRIPTION: Talon stabs the target unit. If they are within melee range, this attack deals critical damage. If they are outside melee range, Talon will leap at his target before stabbing them. Talon refunds some health and cooldown if this ability kills the target.

Noxian Diplomacy is essentially two abilities in one. It can act as Talon's primary gap closer onto an enemy if you're at range or as an auto attack reset that critically strikes to deal massive bonus damage if you're within melee range. It's also important to mention that, unless it's cancelled, Talon will automatically auto attack his target after using Q immediately after.

W - RAKE

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DESCRIPTION: Talon sends out a volley of daggers that then return back to him, dealing physical damage every time it passes through an enemy. The returning blades deal bonus damage and slow units hit.

Rake is Talon's primary wave clear ability while also being important to helping Talon proc his passive. This ability can give a maximum of two passive stacks onto a target: one while going out, and another coming back into Talon. This setups every almost every combo Talon uses in order to proc Blade's End.

E - ASSASSIN'S PATH

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DESCRIPTION: Talon vaults over any terrain or structure, up to a max distance. This ability has a low cooldown, but puts the used terrain on a long cooldown.

This is the ability that gives Talon his ridiculously strong roaming ability. He's able to bypass vision and wards in commonly warded areas, such as river, by walking through the jungle while still getting to the lane even faster than any other champ. In addition, it makes Talon incredibly difficult to chase since he can just skip over so many walls.

R - SHADOW ASSAULT

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DESCRIPTION: Talon disperses a ring of blades and becomes invisible while gaining additional movement speed. When Talon emerges from invisibility, the blades converge on his location. Each time the blades move, Shadow Assault deals physical damage to enemies hit by at least one blade.

Arguably Talon's most important ability in his kit. Similar to his W, Shadow Assault can apply up to two stacks of his passive: one while going out, and another while coming back into Talon. It's essential to all of Talon's one shot combos. However, it doesn't have to be used offensively and can be used defensively thanks to the invisibility and movement speed it grants which can be used to run away from and escape a gank for instance. As well, the invisibility is what makes this ability Talon's main outplay potential.

TIPS AND TRICKS

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Talon's Noxian Diplomacy alone has a lot of interesting and niche tricks and interactions you can do with it. Here's a list of all of the ones I know of:

• When chasing an enemy, don’t use melee-Q. Instead, if you're in melee range, step away and then ranged-Q
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀- This is because melee-Q is like a self-stun for a split second since it stops you from moving and you may not be ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀able to catch back up to your opponent until your Q comes up again. Ranged-Q doesn’t do this and therefore is ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀better for chasing.

• Ranged-Q will still follow the enemy if they Flash or use some sort of dash ability such as Relentless Pursuit or ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ Riftwalk midway through your dash.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀- This interaction is a little buggy sometimes if they go through a wall. Sometimes you won't travel through the wall ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀and your champion looks like it's teleporting.

• If an enemy is close enough to a wall, you can use ranged-Q to get over the wall without using E

Aside from Noxian Diplomacy, here are some other tips with Talon's other abilities:

• While running away from enemies with Assassin's Path, throw your W just before you jump the wall.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀- This is because W slows enemies on it's return, so it can make it even more difficult to catch up to you.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀- Don't do this every time though. If they're right behind you, just jump anyways since W does have a cast time they ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀can catch up to you with.

MAX ORDER

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Every game, you almost always want to max in order from W> Q> E. The reasoning for this is quite simple.

Rake is your primary wave clear ability. Clearing the waves quickly is essential as Talon in order to have the maximum ability to roam without losing XP or minions. As such, it's important to max W first.

Noxian Diplomacy is maxed second since it's your only other damaging ability (other than R).

Finally, you max Assassin's Path last since it does no damage and only reduces the cooldown on which you can jump over certain walls. This cooldown isn't vital at all to Talon, and often times, you won't notice a change each point you put into it.

Of course, make sure you put a point into Shadow Assault at every opportunity.

You used to be able to always max Q> W> E since Q would give great amounts of damage, especially in melee range. However, I recommend against this now since the old Tiamat and Ironspike Whip passive is what enabled you to do this. You sacrifice too much wave clear for this to be viable anymore in my opinion.

However, you technically could still max Q first into certain melee matchups such as Yasuo or Katarina. You don't have to do this as you're sacrificing wave clear and in favor of playing for lane rather than roaming. Personally, I don't recommend it though and always max W first no matter what. It's a matter of preference which you choose to max first into these matchups. I encourage you to try it out both ways and see what works for you.

PREFACE

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A commonly asked question regarding Talon is when to play Electrocute and Conqueror. According to opgg (as of 11.15), Talon primarily goes Conqueror and builds bruiser items. Yet, when many people think of Talon, they think of a high-burst assassin that goes Electrocute. This is because there are two different playstyles, both pretty different from each other, on Talon. While Electrocute Talon is the traditional one-shot assassin that many people think of, Conqueror Talon is a tanky teamfight bruiser. In short, Electrocute Talon deals lots of damage in a fast burst while Conqueror Talon deals more damage in extended fights. Think of it much in the same way that Kayn can choose to go either Shadow Assassin (blue Kayn) and Rhaast (red Kayn), but without the whole collecting orbs part.

WHEN TO GO ELECTROCUTE / CONQUEROR?

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When deciding which runes to go, you want to think about the enemy team comp. Here's a very simple rule to decide if you don't want to think about it much: If they have 3 or more ranged champs, go Electrocute. If they have 3 or more melee champs, go Conqueror. The reasoning for this is quite simple; ranged champs tend to be squishier which is more ideal for Electrocute Talon.

NOTE: As of patch 11.15, I would rather say go Conqueror if they have 2 or possibly even 1 (depending on the enemy team comp) melee champs on their team. Conqueror Talon is very strong right now and, since Prowler's Claw was just nerfed, Electrocute isn't as strong as it used to be.

However, you could be a bit more specific with this rule. It's not necessarily only about ranged/melee champs, but also their crowd control and their overall tankiness. Tankier team comps with more CC are more ideal for Conqueror Talon and vice versa for Electrocute Talon.

I can't give you a specific number to follow like the simple rule I gave above. You should evaluate the enemies team comp on your own and decide for yourself which you believe will be better. If you're unsure of which runes to go, I recommend you play Conqueror Talon because of how strong it is currently in comparison to Electrocute Talon.

ELECTROCUTE RUNES

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Electrocute Gives you additional burst onto single targets. Synergizes perfectly with Talon's kit.

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Taste of Blood Provides extra sustain in lane. Favored over Sudden Impact since lane sustain is much more valuable in my opinion. As well, Sudden Impact doesn't give as much damage as you think.

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Eyeball Collection Extra AD the more takedowns you get. Helps you snowball somewhat and is super easy to stack on a champion like Talon.

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Relentless Hunter Further boosts your roaming ability with free movement speed. Can be exchanged with Ultimate Hunter based on preference.

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Nimbus Cloak Provides movement speed when using Flash or Ignite, extremely helpful both when chasing or escaping.

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Absolute Focus Provides bonus AD for clearing waves and fights. Generally, you are above 70% HP before going into fights or just clearing sidewaves.

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CONQUEROR RUNES

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Conqueror Enables you to deal great amounts more damage in longer fights as well as giving you some healing in the process enabling you to live longer.

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Triumph Significant healing in teamfights on kill, especially if you’re low. It will come in clutch so many times.

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Legend: Tenacity Helps reduce the amount of time your CC’d in fights so you can keep dealing damage and keep on top of your enemies longer.

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Last Stand Oftentimes, you’ll be on the lower end of HP in fights until you use Goredrinker or Triumph hits. Last Stand helps you deal more damage while you are that lower HP. More useful than Coup de Grace in my opinion with Conqueror Talon.

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Taste of Blood Provides extra sustain in lane. Favored over Sudden Impact since lane sustain is much more valuable in my opinion. As well, Sudden Impact doesn't give as much damage as you think.

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Ravenous Hunter Additional healing when clearing waves as well as in fights.

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ELECTROCUTE - CORE ITEMS

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Prowler's Claw Prowler's Claw works really well with Electrocute Talon's whole playstyle. The dash can be used during his R without breaking his invisibility as well as guaranteeing a melee-Q hit. There are many combos you can do with this which you will see in the combos section of this guide

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Serpent's Fang Serpent's Fang is significantly cheaper than Youmuu's Ghostblade, yet gives the same lethality and almost the same AD making it very cost efficient in my opinion and worth building over Youmuu's Ghostblade. As well, the shield reduction can be insane into some team comps (i.e., they have Seraphine, Yasuo/ Yone, Lulu, champions with Immortal Shieldbow, etc.). Don't worry about if the enemy team doesn't have many/any shields since the raw stats are still amazing and worth the purchase in my opinion.

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ELECTROCUTE - SITUATIONAL ITEMS

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Edge of Night Edge of Night is essential for being able to avoid CC when entering/exiting a fight. For most team comps, you will likely want to build Edge of Night at some point.

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Youmuu's Ghostblade I would only build Ghostblade if I'm significantly ahead or if the enemy team is building next to none armor. Too expensive to replace Serpent's Fang in my opinion and isn't as useful compared to the other items I could buy later in the game such as Edge of Night.

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Serylda's Grudge The % armor pen from Serylda's Grudge is super nice against champions who are tanky early that Talon would normally struggle killing. As well, Talon can slow many people in teamfights since both Rake and Shadow Assault both are AOE.

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Chempunk Chainsword Building anti-heal is essential into some team comps and, if your teammates aren't building it, then you definitely should. You don't necessarily need to complete Chempunk Chainsword, usually sitting on Executioner's Calling should be no problem.

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Maw of Malmortius I would only build this item if they have a significant number of AP champs on the enemy team or if you’re getting constantly bursted by a fed AP mage (i.e. LeBlanc or Katarina).

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Guardian Angel Great item to purchase if you’re ahead. Helps to prevent giving away a big shutdown if you have one while giving a good amount of armor.

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CONQUEROR - CORE ITEMS

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Goredrinker Goredrinker is, in my opinion, the strongest mythic for bruiser Talon. Enables him to stay in fights longer thanks to its healing, especially when used correctly. I have a dedicated section on how to use this and Ironspike Whip at the bottom of this section.

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Black Cleaver Black Cleaver synergizes really well with not only the bruiser playstyle but also Talon. In extended fights, it enables Talon to do significantly more damage as well as assisting in increasing the damage of Talon's AD teammates as well.

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CONQUEROR - SITUATIONAL ITEMS

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Sterak's Gage Sterak's Gage is very good against teams where you might get bursted down quickly or you're being focused in fights.

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Ravenous Hydra Ravenous Hydra is also a good choice for the extra wave clear and additional omnivamp. Usually, I don't build this item unless I'm ahead. After the healing nerfs to this item, I feel the healing is too little to justify buying it, especially when the enemy has anti heal. Can still work if you're ahead however.

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Serpent's Fang Serpent's Fang is good if they have shields especially, but also if the enemy team isn’t building much armor/you need to be able to deal more damage to squishies.

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Edge of Night Edge of Night is good into team comps that have significant CC that you need to be able to dodge. As well, the extra lethality is nice. However, if you’re buying this item primarily for the lethality, I would recommend Serpent's Fang over it.

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Thornmail Finishing Thornmail early is only necessary if the enemy team is dealing heavy AD damage to you or they have heavy healing champs. Otherwise, sitting on Bramble Vest is fine. If you did build a Bramble Vest early, then you should have a completed Thornmail by the end of the game.

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Spirit Visage I would only go Spirit Visage if the enemy team is AP-damage heavy (i.e. 2/3+ AP damage dealers). Otherwise, it's not ideal in most cases. The bonus healing on it is nice however.

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Serylda's Grudge Serylda's Grudge is very nice to have on conqueror Talon. It enables Talon to do slow many people in teamfights since both Rake and Shadow Assault both are AOE as well as increasing his damage by a significant amount thanks to the armor pen it gives.

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Death's Dance Into heavy AD team comps, Death’s Dance is incredible. You can heal insane amounts from it on kills. As well, you will stay alive longer in teamfights giving you more time to deal damage and heal.

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Guardian Angel Guardian Angel is a good buy if you're ahead and you need to stay alive in teamfights in order to apply pressure. Normally you'd be buying this sometime around your last item.

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WHY NOT BUILD MURAMANA?

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Previously this season you would build Muramana on Talon for his lethality build. However, I personally don't like doing this anymore. While yes, it solved Talon's mana issues and gave him some nice bonus AD, I don't feel like it's as good as another item you could buy. For context, Muramana would be bought third item normally. Instead of building it third item, you could instead build, for instance, Edge of Night which gives lethality and enables you to deny some sort of crowd control, or Serylda's Grudge which gives a slow and 30% armor pen. Both of these items I feel are better than Muramana which only gives flat damage and bonus mana. As you get better, you're able to manage your mana better on Talon to when Muramana isn't really necessary. Also, you waste 400 gold on Tear of the Goddess early when you could buy another Long Sword for more damage.

If you really wanted to, if you're new to Talon you could still build Muramana third item just to assist with mana management. To do so, buy Tear of the Goddess after you build Serrated Dirk. By the time you buy Muramana, it should be fully stacked or almost fully stacked. But again, I personally recommend against this now.

HOW TO USE GOREDRINKER AND IRONSPIKE WHIP

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To some people, it may be obvious how to use these two items effectively, but others not as much. Regardless, I will still be talking about how to use them.

I'll begin with talking about Ironspike Whip since you obtain this item quite early. Often times, if you're in lane, you're going to be using it for wave clear to help shove the wave. Simply using W on the backwave and then Ironspike Whip should clear it out entirely.

Besides clearing the wave, you can use it offensively. You don't want to use it mid way through your combo or start a combo with it since it just makes your combo more awkward. Instead, you want to use it at the end of your combo after an auto attack. Talon has a low attack speed and Ironspike Whip can be casted regardless of whether your next auto attack is on cooldown or not. In addition, Ironspike Whip only deals 75% of your attack damage meaning it actually does less damage than your auto attacks giving it another reason to be used at the very end of your combo.

After upgrading it, you have Goredrinker. Unlike Ironspike Whip, you generally want to use Goredrinker for the healing rather than actual damage. Since it heals based off of your missing HP, not your max HP, you want to refrain from using it until you start getting quite low.

You don't necessarily want to use it when you're literally almost 1HP since it does have a cast time and you may not get the heal off in time before dying. Usually I use it around 20-40%ish HP since you'll still get quite a big heal from it. As well, just before you use it, you want to look to see if you can get within range of as many enemies as reasonably possibly in order to maximize your healing (emphasis on reasonably, don't suicide into the whole team just for a heal). This is because, in addition to healing based off of missing health, that healing is increased per each champion in range of Goredrinker when you use it. Usually you're only able to get Goredrinker off once or maybe twice during a fight, so ideally don't waste it when you're full HP.

Besides the healing from it, it does have damage scaling with 100% of your AD. If you're going to use it for damage, it's likely when your in a smaller fight and you need to be able to sneak in a tiny amount more damage in order to guarantee a kill. If you're using it in this context, then you you use it in the same way you would use Ironspike Whip as I mentioned above.

HOW TO USE PROWLER'S CLAW

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Since Prowler's Claw has a 90 second cooldown after each use, you're going to be using it exclusively in your combos. You can find a list of combos using Prowler's Claw in the combos section of this guide

PREFACE

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Although Talon has quite a simple kit, he has a large variety of combos he can use for different situations. Knowing these combos, how to use them, and playing around them are essential in order to play Talon effectively. You should know at least a good portion of the combos listed here. Though, you won't necessarily need to memorize them as the majority will just come natural after playing Talon for some amount of time (they're very simple anyways).

Just a few things to note beforehand just for clarification:
• "AA" refers to an auto attack
• You can pair Ignite with any of these combos whenever needed in order to secure a kill.
• Goredrinker or Ironspike Whip can also be used with any of these combos whenever needed.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀- You can read about how to use these most effectively at the bottom of the items section in this guide.
• "Second W" refers to Talon's W returning to him after the initial cast.

W >> ranged-Q >> AA

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Simple lane trading combo. If done correctly, will proc your passive.

Throw out your W at the enemy. If the enemy will get hit by your W returning to you also, then ranged-Q onto the enemy just your W starts to return. Talon should automatically auto attack after thus proccing passive. If you ranged-Q too early however, Talon will auto attack before the W returns all the way meaning you have to auto attack again to proc your passive which is awkward and could lose you a trade or kill.

ranged-Q >> W >> AA

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This is a good combo to use in lane when enemy recently used their dash/snare. It should deal the same damage as the combo above.

Simply ranged-Q onto the enemy and throw out your W. If they don’t have a dash up, the return from your W should hit every time slowing them. This will be more than enough for you to be able to catch up and proc your passive.

W >> Flash >> AA >> melee-Q >> AA

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This is a combo you can use to surprise and kill your laner pre-6. Flashing into melee range of Q is important since it deals significantly more damage.

Throw out your W at the enemy. Make sure the enemy can’t walk outside of the W’s range before you go all in. Just as your W is about to return to you, Flash right on top of them and auto attack then instantly melee-Q them right after. Talon should automatically auto attack after thus proccing passive.

W >> ranged-Q >> R >> AA

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Talon’s simplest and fastest one shot combo. While not the highest damage dealing combo, it’s very fast and will proc your passive still enabling this combo to do heavy damage. This is essentially Talon’s bread and butter combo, and it should be known by everyone. Generally, you will be using this combo against squishy targets that you can kill instantly.

Throw out your W to get at least one stack of your passive on the enemy, the second part doesn't have to hit. Follow this up immediately with ranged-Q and R midway through your Q dash. This gets all three passive stacks on the enemy. Talon should automatically auto attack after thus proccing passive.

ranged-Q >> W >> R >> AA

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Use this combo when you’re looking to kill an enemy that's at range you need to be able to run down.

Use ranged-Q to get on top of your and throw out your W. From there, use your R. Your next auto attack should proc your passive.

R >> AA >> melee-Q >> AA

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This is a combo you can use to proc passive without using W.

First, your R needs to be in range of the enemy that you're targeting in order to get the first stack of your passive. You want to wait a split second for your blades from your R to fully expand before walking into melee range to auto attack. This causes your blades to converge on them, but not instantly. After auto attacking, you want to instantly use Q to get the second stack and by the time the animation goes through, your blades from R will have converged on the target fully giving you the third stack needed for your passive. After the Q, Talon should automatically auto attack after thus proccing passive.

COMBOS USING PROWLER'S CLAW

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W>R>Prowler’s Claw>mQ>Auto

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Talon’s simplest combo using Prowler's Claw. Use this when you’re looking to deal maximum damage to a single target.

First, throw out your W to get one stack of your passive on the enemy. Immediately follow up with your ult as soon as your W cast time is complete. Then, while you’re invisible, use Prowler's Claw on the target you’re looking to kill. Finally, mQ them. Talon should automatically auto attack after thus proccing passive. Alternatively, you could also auto>mQ>auto to sneak in extra auto attack in since Noxian Diplomacy is an auto attack reset.

Prowler’s Claw>W>rQ>R>Auto

This combo should deal the same amount of damage as the WQR combo. The only difference being you use Prowler's Claw to reach your target from a distance. Although you can no longer use this combo with minions, you can still use it with champions still in teamfights.

First, you need to get into range of an enemy champion nearby your target. Use Prowler's Claw to dash to that champion and, immediately after, throw out your W in the direction of your target.
Follow this up immediately with rQ and ult midway through your Q dash. This gets all three passive stacks on the enemy. Talon should automatically auto attack after thus proccing passive.

INVADES

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At the very start of the game, if you're invading, you don’t want to upgrade any of your abilities yet. If you see an enemy and you’re pretty certain they won’t be able to get away (i.e. they already burned Flash, got hit with friendly cc, etc.), then you can start Q. Ideally, you’re looking to walk up to them to AA > melee-Q >> AA for maximum damage. However, you can use ranged-Q if necessary in order to catch up. Don’t be afraid to use Ignite to secure the kill. Ideally, you want to take the kill for yourself for it enables you to buy another Long Sword to assist your laning phase. If you don't get the kill though, that's still okay.

LANING PHASE/EARLY GAME

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Before lane even starts, look to get a ward somewhere in the enemy's jungles, usually around their raptors camp. This enables you to track the enemy jungler. With knowledge of where their jungler is, you can avoid getting ganked as easily. In addition, you can surprise the enemy jungler by invading their jungle and killing them.

Early game, Talon doesn’t do very well against most laners. Into most matchups, start W since it's safer in lane over noxian diploamcyQ. Until you have an opportunity to go in on your laner, just try to last hit minions with auto attacks if possible in order to conserve mana, but don’t do so if it means losing a chunk of your HP just for a minion. If that’s the case, just sit back and use W to last hit.

Usage of Rake is super important on Talon during the laning phase. The majority of your mana is spent on this ability and, unfortunately, Talon uses a lot of mana early game. Don’t use Rake to constantly poke your enemy, you’ll run out of mana very fast. If you’re going to poke your enemy, do it when they’re pushed up and you’ll guarantee hit both hits of your Rake, or just aim your Rake so that when you last hit a minion, it also hits your laner.

Level 2 is your first power spike. If the enemy laner tanks both hits of your Rake, then you can Q into them to proc your passive and deal a good amount of damage. Unless you’re going to kill the laner with this combo, avoid doing this if you’re below half-ish HP because it can result in you being forced to recall from taking too much damage or even dying. Be careful with this as, if you use Q while you're pushed too far in lane, you can tank a turret shot and lose a good chunk of HP for no reason.

Around level 3 - 4, your jungler is going to be looking to contest scuttle soon. As a result, you ideally want to get priority in lane to be able to assist your jungler as soon as a fight breaks out. Talon loves to take fights like these since you're almost always guaranteed to win them. Even if you don't have priority in lane, you should ignore the wave and look to assist your jungler immediately because of your strength early. The only times you shouldn't assist your jungler is if you're low on HP, your jungler is already super low on HP and the enemy jungler isn't, or if you have literally no mana (even if you have enough mana for Q, you should still go because AA >> melee-Q >> AA >> Ignite still does a ton of damage!).

Afterwards is generally when you want to look to recall and buy items. See the items section

In regards to roaming, you never want to roam before you have a point in Assassin's Path (level 3). Before you roam, you want to always push in the wave towards the enemy turret. Generally, I like to roam when I hit level 6 since WQR + Ignite usually guarantees a kill on an ADC, but that doesn't mean you can't roam pre-6. If the enemy laner is very pushed towards your team's turret in another lane, roaming towards that lane isn't a bad idea at all. Though, take into account the lane state. If you die during a roam without getting any kills, it's very bad for you as you'll lose lots of XP and CS.

Another type of roam you can try is to recall and then roam straight from your base. Almost certainly, your laner won't ping that your missing and, in addition, you'll dodge most of the spots that are commonly warded. As a result, you can catch one of the side lanes by surprise.

<I WILL ADD PHOTOS SHOWCASING ROAMING PATHS SOON>

MID GAME

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Mid game usually starts around the time your bot lane rotates to mid lane. When this happens, you want to move towards the bottom lane and shove the waves there. Be aware of where the enemy team might be, you don't want to push the waves too far to the point that you get collapsed on and die, even with Assassin's Path.

Be sure to take advantage of Assassin's Path. It enables you to move around the map far more quickly than other champions. If you see a fight break out, unless it's on the literal opposite side of the map, you'll want to start rotating towards that fight in order to clean up what's left.

In addition, if you can find a pick on someone in the enemy team who's out of position, that's great. It opens up more of the map for your team to do objectives or push towers. Remember that Talon falls of late game, so you want to be looking to end the game before late game is really able to hit.

TEAMFIGHTING

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In teamfights, you almost always want to enter the fight from a flank angle and get right into the backline squishies. This is especially easy on Talon thanks to Assassin's Path. In addition to entering from a flank angle, you never want to be the person to start a teamfight. If you do, you will be focused by the whole team, get hit with cc, and die almost every time. Instead, you wait for someone else to engage and start the fight. Generally, you want to wait until most of the enemy's major cc abilities are used before entering the fight in order to make sure you just don't get hit with a stun and die before having any impact.

Once you enter the backline, your goal is to shut down whoever would be most beneficial in order to win the fight. This could be the Soraka who is healing the entire enemy team, the fed ADC who is killing your whole team, or maybe even a fed top laner. Do not hesitate to burn everything, even if it means burning your Flash or even sacrificing yourself, if it means shutting down whoever is the enemy's win condition for that fight.

In drake or Baron fights, you (usually) shouldn't be in the pit attacking drake. Instead, you want to use your power to zone of the enemy team if they attempt to contest. Or, alternatively, sit in a bush or somewhere else out of vision of the enemy team and look to strike if they push too far up.

LATE GAME

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TO BE COMPLETED SOON
Ideally, you would have liked to end the game before late game truly begins to hit. The reason Talon falls off in the late game is actually because of Assassin's Path. Putting points in it is almost useless damage-wise since it only reduces the cooldowns of walls. It does no actual damage whereas most other champions are putting points into abilities that will still do damage or have some kind of effect on the enemy team. Regardless, if it does come to this point in the game, here is how you should be looking to play it:

Although your champ will be falling off, you can still do heavy burst damage and kill squishy champions without problem. As a result of this, your primary goal becomes shutting down whoever the enemy win condition is. If you ever see a moment where the enemy ADC out of position from the rest of the team you should be looking to rotate to them in order to kill them. Realistically, any picks you're able to find are great for your team, even if it isn't the enemy whos carrying the team per se. Respawn timers become very long as the game progresses and, as a result, killing an enemy late game can mean your team can do Baron or drake while the enemy team would be having a hard time contesting you since it would be a 4v5.

Thank you for reading through my guide! I've put a lot of hard work into this, and giving this a positive vote would help support me. Again, this guide is still a work in progress, and many of the things I plan to add still aren't yet implemented. Hopefully this will all be completed in the near future.

If you want a good resource to watch some Talon gameplay, I recommend you check out Forest of Time on YouTube. He's a Korean Challenger Talon OTP, and he uploads almost daily. Unfortunately, he speaks exclusively Korean in all of his videos. Though, you don't need to understand any Korean in order to just watch his gameplay and analyze how he plays the game. You can find his YouTube channel here

Once again, thank you for clicking and going through this guide. I hope this supports you in some way, and I wish you good luck in your games.