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Talon Build Guide by

Talon, AD mage/Burst Assassin

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3 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Grizz

Talon Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (3) More Talon Guides

Spells:

Flash

Exhaust

Ability Order

Talon Passive Ability

More Talon Counters

Introduction

is a burst AD assassin style character. He is best suited for quickly jumping to a weak target with cutthroat and unloading all his moves to get a quick kill or at least force them to retreat. He also has some minor (and often underestimated) CC capabilities with his and Cutthroat. He is best described as an AD "mage" like or . All of his abilities deal physical damage.

Skill Overview

Mercy
mercy

mercy is 's passive. It adds 10% increased damage to his basic attacks if your target is slowed, stunned, immobilized or suppressed. A pretty straightforward passive, you can receive the bonus from the snare on your own skill or any slow gained from items such as , , and / actives. It also works with lizard buff and . One thing to note is if you have an on hit slow effect such as Lizard buff, the bonus will not take effect until your target has already been slowed (meaning your first attack against a target will only apply the slow and won't activate your passive)

Noxian Diplomacy

is 's Q ability. It deals additional physical damage on your next attack (30/60/90/120/150)(+0.3 per bonus attack damage)) and causes your target to bleed for (18/36/54/72/90)(+1.2 per bonus attack damage) physical damage over 6 seconds. While a target is bleeding they are revealed. This skill resets your basic attack timer so it's best used immediately after a basic attack to gain the most damage. The reveal portion of this move is very useful as it negates people from using brush to juke or escaping by flashing over an obstacle since you can cutthroat to them or follow them with your easily.

Rake

is 's W ability. throws three daggers in a cone pattern that go out and then return to him dealing (30/55/80/105/130)(+0.6 per bonus attack damage) physical damage each time it passes through an enemy. You can hit targets with both the "going out" portion and the "return" part of this skill. It is possible for targets near the maximum range of this skill to avoid taking damage if they are in between the projectiles, or for targets to only get hit with one part, and avoid the other. The best way to think of this is like 's only with a much smaller range and the two hit component.

Cutthroat
cutthroat

cutthroat is 's E ability. instantly appears behind your target silencing them for 1 second and amplifying his damage against that target by (3/6/9/12/15)% for 3 seconds. This is your gap closing ability, silence and late game damage scaler all rolled into one. The silence from this move always stays at 1 second only the cooldown and damage amplification increase with skill level. You may only target enemies with this move so you cannot "jump" to allied units/wards to escape like and . Overall this is pretty much a one point wonder skill for most of the game.

Shadow Assault

is 's ultimate ability. shoots out a ring of daggers and instantly enters stealth for up to 2.5 seconds while gaining +40% movement speed. When emerges from stealth, the daggers converge on him. Each time a dagger passes through an enemy, they receive (120/195/270)(+0.9 per bonus attack damage) physical damage. You can activate the ability again to end the stealth early and force the blades to return. This move has a variety of uses from escaping, repositioning, waiting for your cooldowns to come back or bursting down a target. If you are using offensively you should run behind the intended target (relative to where you started casting the skill) and then wait, or hit R again to force all of the daggers to fly "through" the enemy and back to you. If you are using this as an escape remember that when the effect ends all of the floating daggers fly back to you so the enemy team will know where you went and you should plan accordingly. This move does a ton of damage if used properly and and hit multiple targets.

Pros / Cons

Pros:
+Great burst damage
+High mobility
+Can silence enemies with cutthroat
+ is a great move with high damage/utility and has low cooldown.

Cons:
-Weak lane phase until he gains a few levels. (very similar to )
-Weak at farming until mid/late game.
-Squishy
-No defensive moves besides and no sustain at all.

Runes

I chose Greater Mark of Desolation and Greater Quintessence of Desolation for obvious reasons, these runes help out with everything does including his spells. For seals I take to allow me to use all my spells often in lane. It allows me to spam to harass and last hit minions when it's unsafe to autoattack. I use to beef up a little bit for mid/late game to offset 's squishyness.

The only runes I strongly recommend are Greater Mark of Desolation and Greater Quintessence of Desolation. For seals and glyphs it is mostly up to player preference. Other good choices besides what I use are , and .

Masteries

For masteries I chose 21/9/0. I take most of the standard AD masteries in offense. Does not deal any magic damage and has no AP coefficients on his moves so do not take or . I took some basic armor and magic resistance masteries and in defense to help with early laning. If you chose to use dodge runes, picking up is a very good choice instead. You can also use 21/0/9 and pick up for the extra XP gain if you prefer it.

Summoner Spells

The only summoner spells I suggest for are:

Always take flash and your choice between exhaust or Ignite. I don't feel that anything else compliments as well as these spells. activates your passive so it has some added synergy with . is not a very good traditional fighter with his poor defenses and lack of hard cc which makes especially useful since it can give you the edge needed to beat a tanky dps or enemy fighter as you will normally have a lot of trouble with them. is very useful against healers and and lifesteal based champions such as and . also gives you the extra burst to bring down soft targets extremely fast.

Items

I start with and 3 . This gives you good mobility to run in and out of encounters and last hitting with enough health recovery to stay in lane vs most opponents. It's especially important if you chose to cutthroat on an enemy champion because it allows you to deal your damage then retreat quickly back to safety. On my first trip back to base I like to buy 1-2 for much needed early game health and damage. I get my as soon as possible next. is extremely good for it provides everything you need to dominate: AD, ArP and much needed CDR. Next I like to finish my boots. I usually take mercury treads but it is mostly a game to game decision on what boots to purchase. Next I work on my first big ticket item . I like for the damage and sustain it provides for the price. After that I usually get for survivability reasons and the slow effect works well with 's Passive Mercy. To finish off my build I purchase this allows you to deal considerable damage late game.

Alternate Items:

Infinity Edge

is a better dps item than in terms of auto attacking. However it won't really make your spells hit any harder over . This replaces in this build and you should consider it if you find yourself auto attacking a lot in team fights. Remember it also costs slightly more than . You should pair this with to get the most out of it.

Youmuu's Ghostblade

is a strong item and should be paired with if you go this route, but for my standard build I feel you don't get a lot for how much you pay over . I do however get this item frequently after since by then I can withstand some punishment and utilize the active to full effect.

Quicksilver Sash

is a great item against teams with a lot of crowd control and very cheap to boot. Often people don't know it can remove suppression effects and all debuffs (even 's ultimate ). It's especially useful for because if you get focused in a team fight you can pop this and then quickly use to vanish from sight and reposition or escape.

Banshee's Veil

is a solid defensive item if you need magic resistance and health this is a good choice. The mana bonus is nice but not really needed on

Trinity Force

is a decent item for . I don't feel the benefits outweigh the price however. It still adds a nice amount of burst to your combo and the movement speed is very nice. I've tested it a little bit more recently and had some success with it. It's an item to consider at times but don't go into every game planning to buy this.

Gameplay Overview

Chosing a lane:
I play as a solo or duo lane champion. If you are going to duo lane I suggest you go bottom with a support champion who will let you farm. If you want to solo, be wary of who you will lane against as will have trouble against most ranged champions. Solo top is not a bad spot for him but you may find you get bullied pretty badly early. the truth is is very weak early and you must play safe and smart to succeed. Use to harass or last hit if you can't get close enough.

Skill order/usage
For burst I usually use > cutthroat > wait for autoattack > > . After the initial part of you can now reposition yourself to deal maximum damage with the return daggers and finish your target or escape safely.

In chasing/small skirmishes start with Cutthroat then followup with > . This maximizes your time to autoattack the target while hes snared.

Remember resets your autoattack timer, and should always be used immediately after an autoattack to maximize damage.

General:
The main thing you must understand with is how to estimate your survivability and damage before you engage in a fight. A poor decision can easily lead to your death as . A common mistake is to use shadow ***ualt too offensively. You may end up with a kill on your intended target only to find yourself way out of position with no escape left leading to your death. Remember that cutthroat is a silence, and you might be better suited to saving it to interrupt an important move such as instead of using it as a gap closer. During mid game (usually after you get B.F Sword) your is strong enough to kill caster minions so you that to your advantage to farm quickly.

Closing

I hope you enjoyed my guide. I really enjoy playing this character and I feel he is one of the most fun champions in League of Legends. If you see any mistakes I made please let me know in the comments (this is my first guide :D). I may add more to this guide in the future as is still very new. I hope you found my guide helpful.

Changelog
8/26/11 - Revised some grammar and formatting. Also added to the items section.
8/29/11 - Changed formatting and adding "Skill overview" section.