Talon Build Guide by Malmortious

Introduction

Heya people!
Welcome to my first guide. ^^
Talon is my main (one-trick) from pretty much when I started playing , so that would be more than 4 years ago , but I took long breaks in between.

I was rated as the 7th best Talon in EUNE and have over 800k mastery points on Talon , so I believe I'm quite experienced with him and after his rework I decided I'd make a guide.

Abilities

Talon's Passive

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

Talon's Q

Talon stabs a target unit. If they are within melee range , this attack does 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.

Talon's W

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.

Talon's E

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.

Talon's R

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.

Spell Sequence

Ability Sequence
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18

Rake

Noxian Diplomacy

Shadow Assault

Assassin's Path

Rake

Summoner Spells

Flash - Probably the best Summoner Spell in the game. You can use it in your combos and for escapes , invaluable to Talon.

Ignite - Securing kills earlier in the game or just more burst late game.

Other spells are a bit lackluster on Talon.

Pros / Cons

Pros:

-Very high burst damage
-High mobility and map presence
-Invisibility from Shadow Assault
-A lot of escape potential
-Rather good split push
-Unpredictable engage/flank patterns

Cons:

-High mana costs
-Squishy
-Vulnerable to CC and peel
-Scales off late game

Runes

Runes
Greater Mark of Attack Damage 4	Greater Mark of Lethality 5	Greater Seal of Armor 9	Greater Glyph of Magic Resist 9	Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage 3

Masteries

There is not much to talk about on these , since most are self explanatory , but I'm going to explain some of the picks I think have other viable options.

Ferocity :

Get the Fresh Blood mastery because it helps with your burst , since you need to Auto Attack at least once to proc your Passive.

Despite some people arguing it's better to get Vampirism for sustain , I doubt it will help much so grab Natural Talent for CS-ing and maybe even a kill with the early bonus AD.

Cunning :

Get Wanderer since you will have to roam a lot and this will reduce the time in which you reach other lanes by a nice amount overall.

Get Assassin for kills , it helps with your early all-in on your laner. It's not really worth getting Secret Stash but if you want to be safer and facing a hard match-up you could get this.

Get Stormraider's Surge as your keystone. This is extremely good and very underrated , it helps you avoid ganks and gives you a lot of stickiness to your target. If you give it a try you'll only play with this one , trust me on this. Thunderlord's Decree is obviously very good , but I find it a bit less useful in teamfights where if you get in and use your Ultimate for a kill or two but got no escapes up , you're gonna get CC-ed and die.

Items

Youmuu's Ghostblade should be rushed first if you plan on roaming a lot and barely staying in lane and Duskblade of Draktharr if you want more lane power , buying Boots of Mobility to help with roaming in both cases but especially helpful if you went for Duskblade of Draktharr first to compensate for the lack of out of combat movement speed.
Maw of Malmortius should be rushed first if you are against an AP laner that poses a threat.

Due to the changes to Lethality it is now better rushing Lethality + Armor Penetration items first and it's no longer worth getting Tiamat to build towards Ravenous Hydra. You should look to get the items in this order : Duskblade of Draktharr > Youmuu's Ghostblade > The Black Cleaver > Guardian Angel > Mortal Reminder.

The build order listed above works in most cases , but feel free to change it depending on the situation.
Buying The Black Cleaver after your first or first two Lethality items helps a lot because Talon is really squishy and if you are ahead it's recommended building this so you don't lose your lead to a very good enemy team focusing.

Even though Tiamat helped a lot CS-ing early , and it is still a viable option , it is better building more Lethality and Armor Penetration.

You should get Boots of Mobility somewhere after or while building your Youmuu's Ghostblade / Duskblade of Draktharr. It's good upgrading them if you're getting really fed and snowballing so you can transition your lead by ganking other lanes. If the enemy team has strong CC or maybe an AD/AP heavy composition you should look to get the other options I listed in the Boots section.

Combos

As Talon you have plenty of ways to engage an enemy champion.
Here are the ones I use :

1)(Fast Combo) Rake > Noxian Diplomacy > Shadow Assault immediately after casting Noxian Diplomacy , while you are mid air so you get the Auto Attack reset on landing , proccing Blade's End

2) Shadow Assault > Noxian Diplomacy > Rake > Auto Attack for Blade's End + Ignite if necessary

2') Shadow Assault > Flash > Noxian Diplomacy > Rake > Auto Attack for Blade's End + Ignite if necessary

3)(Surprise Attack) Assassin's Path over terrain > 1) , 2) or 2')

4)(Extended Combo) Rake > Noxian Diplomacy > Auto Attack for Blade's End > Shadow Assault > Noxian Diplomacy if the target can escape , didn't die or is rather tanky.

5)(Used for early game kills when you don't have your ultimate or if the target is very squishy and has no sustain , you choose the order of Q and W depending on situation) Noxian Diplomacy / Rake > Rake / Noxian Diplomacy > Auto Attack for Blade's End + Ignite if necessary

Early Game

Talon has a bit harder early game mana wise if you poke a lot , but if you can get kills early that's not going to be a problem later.

If you go Rake as I advised , you can do some very nice trades at level 1 , by using Rake and hitting the target 2 times and then Auto Attack - this will proc Thunderlord's Decree if you chose that keystone.

At level 2 , if you followed the ability sequence , will be a big powerspike. Even though Talon has high mana costs , his early game is extremely good , for a simple reason : you can all in on people at level 2.

Firstly , you should start by using Rake for the slow and for 2 ticks on your passive. Then Noxian Diplomacy for third tick , Auto Attack to activate the bleed from Blade's End and Ignite , also proccing Thunderlord's Decree if you have it. Your target should now be dead.

Mid Game

Mid game is where Talon shines.

If you got fed or at least some kills through the early game , this is going to be a breeze. Although Talon , and Assassins in general , get rather useless when behind so you should make sure to get fed , because Talon is a very snowball-y champion and that's why getting kills and roaming is very important.

You'll find yourself dealing a lot of damage in teamfights , and even if forced to leave , your teammates should be able to finish them off.

Late Game

If you manage to get fed or have a good number of kills until late game you're just going to keep getting more. A fed Talon is a scary Talon.

If you do that even tanks will be afraid of you , from my experience it's very hard to get you killed , unless you mess up or they focus you fast.

Sadly , if you get to this part of the game you'll start scaling off so you should try to end the game and help your team as much as possible.

In teamfights , you should focus on assassinating high priority targets , like the enemy Mid laner , ADC or Jungler. (Only if the Jungler is some kind of assassin and is not tanky , otherwise do not focus that)

Also , you should never initiate teamfights with Shadow Assault , they will back and when you come off invisibility they will CC you and kill you. (Worth mentioning to also never initiate teamfights with anything , not only ulti. You should be looking to flank after your team engaged , if you are the engager they need to follow up immediately or you'll probably die.)

Thanks for reading!

Thanks for reading guys. :)

Be sure to leave some feedback and suggestions for my guide! ^^