UPDATED FOR SEASON 3 PATCH!

Welcome, fellow addict!

You've probably landed at my guide on playing as Talon due to one of the following:

1) You're looking for ways to improve your gameplay as Talon.
2) You had no idea there was a champ named Talon.
3) You've just come out of a game where Talon dominated you and your teammates and now you're wondering what his abilities are so you can find out what the heck happened in the span of the 3 seconds that lost you the game.

I picked up Talon because point #3 above happened to me in the first month of playing LoL.
Afer that, Talon quickly became my main & favourite champ.

Being that anyone can write a guide on any champ, I think it would be prudent for you to know a bit about me, as it relates to LoL.

* I started playing LoL in March 2012, which in relative terms makes me a newcomer to this game. However, a few very goods friends of mine have been playing since the beta launched and all I've been hearing about since that time is this game. I've been lucky enough to be surrounded by a wealth of information from very experienced players so I've made the most of the short time I've been playing.

* I'm in no way, shape or form a pro at this game. I am, however, a committed team player that's open to ideas, welcomes opinions and tries to stay positive at all times.

* Of the 600+ games I've played, over half have been with Talon, and almost always those games ended up with my team being victorious. I've tried out approx. 95% of the champs available and have faced many, many, MANY of them while playing as Talon.

Guide Purpose: How to play Talon as Mid, with some insight into roaming and helping other lanes.

This guide aims to cover the majority of situations that can arise as it relates to Talon, and to be relatively to-the-point.

So let's get on with it :D

For the purposes of this guide, I have to make a few assumptions, even if it makes makes an a** out of me :P

ONE
There are many guides out there and I have to believe that you have read at least 1 or 2 of them. So by now you will have noticed that many guides cover some very trivial and mundane stuff... which I aim not to go over in voluminous detail.

TWO
You've played LoL enough to know that farming minions (cs) is essential and in most circumstances a higher priority than trying to get that enemy champ kill. Last hitting is a skill that must be trained for and differs depending on the champ & the champ's build.

THREE
You've played or played against quite a few champs, so you have a general understanding of a variety of different champs' abilities and gameplay styles.

FOUR
You realize that enemy champions aren't necessarily "tougher" or "harder" to play against. The main factor is the skill of the player controlling that champ. Also, a well coordinated oppostion that can rapidly gank a champ in lane and move on to securing a Dragon kill before getting back to their respective lanes, is almost certainly going to dominate said game.

FIVE
You understand that this is a team effort based game. Yes, you are Talon, a master assassin, but if you wander around alone, you will most certainly be ganked and nobody wants to start a team fight 4v5.

SIX
Global objectives such as Baron and Dragon must be a factor in your teams gameplay. Dragon nets your entire team a total of 950g (plus an extra 25g to the champ who got the last hit). Baron nets your team a ton of gold too, but more importantly you get the buff that can change the course of the game.

Never run to get Baron because someone on your team starts pinging it while the entire opposition is alive and well. Take down one or more of their champs, then run to get Baron. Conversely, don't be the one pinging to get Baron when you know it may not end well.

There's a lot of strategy here behind Baron vis-a-vis baiting the other team, stealing Baron, solo'ing it when possible, etc. But that's beyond the scope of a Talon playing guide :P

SEVEN
Situational items - there are plenty of them to buy!

Apart from the early-to-mid game items that Talon requires, the rest is really situational. I hate saying that, but it's 100% true. As your team builds gear, the opposing team will (or should) react - as will you, to them. At some point you'll realize, "Hey! I need more lifesteal." or "Hey! They have 3 tanky champs that we can't seem to finish in a team fight so I need more Armor Penetration gear." etc. etc.

The item build for a mid-lane Talon that I've laid out above is very powerful against Ability Power champs. Some of these items are situational so I will go over them with some detail below. But for the most part, I'm hoping that in your respective games, you will know what items to buy to adjust for the oppositions items.

Don't be afraid to sell an item when necessary.

UPDATED FOR SEASON 3 PATCH!


With the advent of the Season 3 patch, we've been hit with some new runes!
The new "Scaling" runes are for those with long term plans in mind.

Greater Quintessence of Strength

x 3

GAIN: 2.25 Attack Damage (AD) x 3 = 6.75 total increase in AD

AD is essential to Talon. Without AD, you won't be assassinating anything.
I chose these quints as opposed to the Greater Quintessence of Scaling Attack Damage because they don't provide that necessary early harass AD. This is debatable so choose the quints that best reflect your play/build style.

Greater Mark of Scaling Attack Damage

x 9

GAIN: 0.13 AD x 9 = 1.17 total increase in AD

Take these marks over Greater Mark of Armor Penetration as they have been nerfed in the Season 3 patch. Not only that, but these new scaling marks provide an additional 2.34 AD each when you hit level 18 for a grand total of 21.06 AD. That's almost the equivalent of a Pickaxe that costs 875 gold!

Some of you may still prefer the earlier increased AD, so for that you can take Greater Mark of Attack Damage. These provide a total increase of 8.55 AD. However, at level 7 a single Greater Mark of Scaling Attack Damage provides 0.91 AD... which means, when you hit level 8, these marks will already be providing more AD than the Greater Mark of Attack Damage... so choose wisely!

Greater Seal of Scaling Attack Damage

x 4

GAIN: 0.06 AD x 4 = 0.24 total increase in AD

For the same reasons above, the scaling attack damage runes are best to take.

Greater Seal of Warding

x 5

GAIN: 0.74 Magic Resist (MR) x 5 = 3.7 total increase in MR

Talon needs MR early on when facing an enemy mid-lane AP champ. The enemy champ will most likely have nine Greater Mark of Magic Penetration so you need to keep every bit of health you can. You need to make them use more mana than you... this will keep them frustrated and possibly even cry to their jungler to help them gank you. All these situations are good, both for you and the rest of your team.

Keeping them focused on you at mid lane will create some breathing room for your teammates in other lanes.

Greater Glyph of Warding

x 9

GAIN: 1.34 MR x 9 = 12.06 total increase in MR

As stated above, Talon needs MR when going mid against an enemy AP champ. Take their hits like a champ, make them waste their mana, and then hit them when they are low.

TOTAL GAIN @ Level 1

AD: 8.16
MR: 15.76

TOTAL GAIN @ Level 7

AD: 15.9
MR: 15.76

TOTAL GAIN @ Level 18

AD: 32.13
MR: 15.76

Here's the breakdown of each ability, plus the passive:

Passive = Mercy

Mercy

This isn't an amazing passive when compared to other champs. However, it screams two things:

1) This is meant to combo'd with your "W" ( Rake) because of the slowing effect it applies. Keep in mind that the passive only applies to auto-attacks.

2) You should not be the one to initiate a team fight... you're the champ that jumps in after the enemy team has been hit by a few of your teammates abilites.

Q = Noxian Diplomacy

This effectively boosts your DPS output by landing a high-damage, close range shot to your target. In addition to this gut-shot, it resets your auto-attack timer AND makes a target champ bleed. So when you are attacking an enemy champ, after landing an auto-attack, immediately press 'Q' and you will immediately hit them for very high-damage and then auto-attack them again! As they run away, they will be bleeding for even more damage as well.

W = Rake

This is referred to as your bread-and-butter ability. It hits targets with blades as they fire out directly in front of you in a wide area cone AND on the way back as the blades return to you. ArP and AD scale greatly with this ability because it hits targets twice (unless it's timed wrong or the target is sitting at the max range of your Rake).

Rake should be used to harass, but the mana cost is high. When playing mid, do not spam this skill. If Talon is out of mana, you are completely screwed.

There are 3 main scenarios in which to use Rake:

1) For Money: Quickly clear minion waves (but not to push your lane too far, unless you have to).

2) Offensively: When 2-3 minions in the wave are low on health AND the enemy champ is within range, fire off a Rake to score last hit gold on the minions and harass the enemy (this is the most efficient use of Rake to conserve your mana).

3) Defensively: If you're running to get out of a fight, quickly turn, Rake and keep running! The slowing effect of Rake is incredibly useful!

Max this ability first.

E = Cutthroat

Cutthroat

This ability let's you jump on top of your target and silences that target for a full second. The target now takes amplified damage from you for 3 seconds. This is why you should always Cutthroat to initiate your combo/kill. It will scare the heck out of your enemy and allow you to throw in an auto-attack and another ability before getting away.

Don't forget to use this skill defensively as well. You can target an enemy minion and literally flash away in an instant, should you be caught off-guard or just need to get away.

You only need to level up this ability once.
The damage amplification is great and increases as you skillup, but the "jump and silence" is really what you're after here. The jump range and silence duration do not increase as you level this ability up.

R = Shadow Assault

Talons ultimate is nothing short of amazing. Most people don't see it the way I do, which is, a very high-damage AOE ability. It's on a very low cooldown and when timed correctly can turn the tide in a team fight.

When you press 'R', three things happen:

1) Very large blades will fire out from you in all directions, hitting all enemy champs within it's range.

2) You immediately gain stealth and a 40% increase in movement speed for 2.5 seconds.

3) After you lose stealth, the blades will hastily return to wherever you are (since you can move around after presing 'R').

Targets in the area can only be hit once by your ult (aka only one blade will hit the target) at the start, and once more when the blades return to Talon after 2.5 seconds. Your goal it to make your target take damage both times, whenever possible.

Defensively, don't be afraid to simply ult to get out of a gank, team fight or even a 1v1 that's gone bad. The most effective way to do this is to start walking away in one direction, ult, walk away in a different direction and retreat to safety. This is effectively known as juking an opponent and 2.5 seconds in an eternity.

UPDATED FOR SEASON 3 PATCH!

UPDATED FOR SEASON 3 PATCH!

Starting Items

Boots
Health Potion x 3

First Trip Back

You shouldn't have to make any trips back to base (unless you are seriously low on health, get ganked, etc.) before hitting level 6. Once you reach level 6 in lane (aka when you get your ultimate), you should go back to buy.

On your first trip back to base, you really have 3 item building paths to choose from:

Path One
Required Gold: 1337g

You're doing well against the enemy AP champ, you're not taking too much damage and you want to get your first kill (hopefully, 2nd or 3rd :D).
The Brutalizer

or

Path Two
Required Gold: 1350g

You're doing ok, but the enemy AP champ hits hard and is very skilled, or, you're facing a Karthus. The magic shield that's created by this weapon is badass :D
Hexdrinker

or

Path Three
Required Gold: 475 + 75 + (35 x 3) + 400 = 1055g

You're not sure how you're going to win your lane against the enemy AP champ. What you do know is that you need more damage and a little more sustain.
Doran's Blade
Sight Ward
Health Potion x 3
Long Sword (when in doubt, it's better to build towards The Brutalizer)

Next Purchase

You will need to complete your boots into tier 2.
A fatty, slow assassin is useless in a fight.

The Ideal Boots
Do you like killing the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th champs that came to play in your gank?
Grab Ionian Boots of Lucidity for the cooldown reduction (CDR). A great Talon build is to reach the 40% CDR max. cap to allow you to spam your abilities. Combined with your masteries and The Brutalizer, these boots would put you at 29%... just 11% short of the max. cap.
Required Gold: 700g


The Recommended Boots
Do you need more MR because the opposing team has 3+ AP champs or a dominating Karthus?
Grab Mercury's Treads for the MR.
Required Gold: 850g


Other Possibilities
Do you need to protect yourself from that AD jungler or carry at bot lane?
Grab Ninja Tabi for the armor.
Required Gold: 650g


Do you like pushing your mid lane to help gank top/bot?
Grab Mobility Boots to move quickly between top/mid/bot.
Required Gold: 650g

After Boots

Complete the Black Cleaver
Required Gold to Complete This Item: 1663g

AND

Start on Bloodthirster
Required Gold: 3000g

Back 2 Boots

With the Season 3 patch, we've been given access to enchantments for tier 2 boots!

There are several to select from, but like I mentioned before, you need mobility.
A fatssassin is like a turret... easy to dodge and no real threat.

Grab the Enchantment: Alacrity for that speed boost!
Required Gold: 475g

What's Next?

From here you just need to start completing your item build.

Get the Last Whisper for that incredible ArP to assassinate armor heavy champs.
Required Gold: 2290g

Grab another Bloodthirster to make your enemies cry. With each hit you start to gain an amazing amount of health back while doing massive damage.
Required Gold: 3000g

Complete the Maw of Malmortius for the additional magic resist, AD and even more AD (should you be running around at less than 50% health!).
Required Gold: 3200g

Focused Much?

If you're being focused (which is a good thing, because you are not the AD carry), buy yourself a Guardian Angel and make them think twice.
Required Gold: 2600g


Hell, get 2 or 3 Bloodthirster's... but really, the game shouldn't last that long.

Summoner Spell 1

Ignite



Combined with the bleed from your "Q" Noxian Diplomacy, a fairly healthy enemy champ won't know what hit 'em.

At early levels, the following combo could easily result in a kill (or very close to one):
Rake + Cutthroat + auto-attack + Noxian Diplomacy + Bleed + Ignite

Summoner Spell 2

I suggest either of the following:

Teleport



Since you're playing mid, you never want to miss a piece of the action. Get back to your turret asap or Teleport in to a team fight to help turn the tide. Nine times out of ten, I take Teleport on Talon.

or

Flash



Ahhh, the good old get out of jail free card.
You get your Cutthroat at level 2, but sometimes there's no enemy minion in sight to jump to or it's on cooldown. Take this if you need it... I've done quite well without it.

To play Talon effectively, I suggest you heavily embrace the fact that he is a burst assassin.

This means that his strength lies in his ability to dive on top of a target, assassinate said target and get out.

His abilities are all focused around this goal, but can drain your mana quite heavily early on, so knowing when to commit to an assassination is also key.

Let's get started on some strategic gameplay with Talon.

1 vs 1 Assassination

The combos and gameplay tactics below apply to playing as Talon in any lane and in general, when you see a roaming enemy champ.


Pre-level 6 (No Ultimate)

When you're laning, you must harass without losing too much mana.
Early on (up to level 9'ish), I suggest you keep track of how much mana you have vs how much mana each ability costs. By this I mean all of your abilities as you will more often than not use them all in one big combo.

To harass, and as I mentioned earlier, you need to time your Rake to last hit a couple of minions AND hit your opponent. Two or more Rake's and your opponent will be down at least a third in health. If they are smart, they will chug a Health Potion or two. This is great news as you will have forced them to spend gold on buying more on their next trip back to base.

By level 3 you will have all three of your abilities which creates a very effective combo to harass and kill.

When all of your abilities are off of their respective cooldown's, it's time to start the show.


How to Harass

If your opponent is at full life and feels no fear to get close to a minion to get that last hit (and you are fairly healthy aka 75% to full health), you should try the following.

1) Start walking towards the enemy minion that's about to be targeted by your opponent for a last hit.

2) Auto-attack the enemy champ as they go in for their last hit on the minion. If you miss your window of opportunity, don't chase them back to their turret... just wait until they come in close and try again.

3) Then jump on them with your "E" Cutthroat to silence them.

4) If you can, immediately land another auto-attack and follow that up by activating your "Q" Noxian Diplomacy to hit them for a big chunk of damage with a bleeding effect and auto-attack again (since Noxian Diplomacy resets the your auto-attack timer).

5) Start walking back to your turret.

6) Rinse-and-repeat.

At this point, you need to make one of 3 decisions:

One - The Ideal Situation

The enemy champ is low on health.
Their jungler and the rest of their team is visible on the map and far enough away from your lane/target.
A Flash won't save your opponent and you're a safe distance from the enemy turret.

If one or more of the above is true, you should immediately:
1) Rake the enemy champ.
2) Cutthroat to jump on top of them.
3) Activate your "Q" Noxian Diplomacy and follow them, as they will most likely be trying to retreat to the safety of their turret. But they should be slowed :D
4) When you catch up to them, hit 'em for big damage and the bleed.
5) If they seem really low on health, immediately Ignite them to ensure the kill and start heading back to safety.


Two - The Common Situation

The enemy champ is at mid to low health.
You can see 2 to 3 members of the enemy team visible on the map (aka a jungler may be lurking).
Your opponent may have a Flash up, but they are far enough away from their own turret that they would still have to walk away after the Flash.

If some of the points above hold true, you should consider doing one or more of the following:
1) Rake the enemy champ.
2) Cutthroat to jump on top of them.
3) Activate your "Q" Noxian Diplomacy and stomp them for some big burst damage and bleed.
4) Zone them and safely farm some minions (they may be too afraid as they're low on health and might be thinking that you're being aggressive because your own jungler is ready to pounce on them).


Three - The Worst Situation

The enemy champ is at high to mid health because you missed a few Rake's and/or they chugged a few Health Potion's.
You can see 2 to 3 members of the enemy team visible on the map (aka a jungler may be lurking).
Your opponent may have a Flash up, but they are far enough away from their own turret that they would still have to walk away after the Flash.
Your opponent is also not backing away and still trying to get last hits on minions.

If some of the points above hold true, you should consider doing one or more of the following:
1) Back away to the safety of your turret unless you have wards up and are certain their jungler is not around.
2) If you have close to full mana and there's no possibility of killing/ganking your foe, don't be afraid to Rake to get 1 or 2 last hits on minions. Just be conservative and get as much gold as you can.
3) If you have Teleport and it's off of it's cooldown, push your lane a bit, get back to your turret, recall to base and buy some Sight Ward's, Health Potion's and/or items. Then immediately Teleport back to your turret or search the map to see if you can help gank top or bot lane.


Level 6 or Later (aka Once you have your Ultimate)

Only a couple of things change from the points above once you get your ultimate.

For one, your burst damage will be increased so much so that you should be able to kill the enemy champ in one combo.

Your complete combo to kill an enemy champ should go as follows:

1) Rake the enemy.
2) Cutthroat to jump on top of them.
3) Land an auto-attack.
4) Activate your "Q" Noxian Diplomacy and hit them (this should be done fast as you want to take advantage of the amplified damage from Cutthroat which is limited by time).
5) You should also have your "Q" timed so you land another auto-attack by resetting the timer correctly.
6) Activate "R" Shadow Assault and run towards the direction the enemy champ is heading.
7) Hit "R" again to hit them with another blade from Shadow Assault again (before they leave the circle of blades).
8) Auto-attack them or Rake if it's off of the cooldown.
9) Ignite and/or "Q" Noxian Diplomacy to secure the kill as you part ways with them.

The steps listed above can be changed up depending on how low on health the enemy champ is. Sometimes you don't need to ignite, and other times you may not even have to Shadow Assault them.

I use the above combo (with variations) to dominate mid lane champs - and if they are away from their turret, they are typically going to die. Strategically, my goal is to farm minions and harass until I get to level 6, at which point, I go back to base to buy items and come back to my lane to kill the enemy champ. The majority of the time, if I try to kill my opponent before level 6, it's because I have my jungler ready to combo with me.


Situational Variation

Once you have your ultimate, there's a variation that you can use to combo kill an enemy.
I typically don't use this variation, but it does come in handy in some situations.

The situational variation is to activate your ultimate to gain stealth for 2.5 seconds which should allow you to get close to an enemy (either from a bush or even while farming minions in the middle of the map). Then you simply Cutthroat to them and continue on with the full combo as given above.

The thing to remember is that once you activate your ultimate ( Shadow Assault), each enemy champ can only be hit once by the blades and then once more as the blades pass through the enemy again. As well, each enemy champ is only ever hit by one blade, no matter how many blades look like they visually made contact with them.

To this end, using this variation will hit the enemy champ once, not twice with your ultimate - so you better make sure you can kill them or at the very least help burst them down if they are in a fight.


How to Team Fight

There's a kill order in LoL, and in order to win your game, you should coordinate with your team.

Your job is to burst down the AD/AP carry.

That's it.

The only real exception to this is if the enemy AD/AP carry is no real threat. This could be true due to many reasons. I would just glance at the "Tab" screen to see who has the most kill vs deaths and the best/worst item build.

So, how do you go about completing your "job"?

You wait, and when the time is right, you assassinate.

Let's break this down a bit farther, shall we?

Wait

What are you waiting for?

You're waiting for your initiator to start the team fight (it could be 3v3, 4v4 or 5v5).
Once they have started, be wary of enemy champ locations and skills being used.


Is The Time Right?

Have enemy champs used their ultimates yet?
Are Ignite's and Flash'es being burned left, right and center?
Are more champs coming to join the fight?
Has your tank activated their own ultimate?
Where is the AD/AP carry situated?

That last question is actually your highest concern.


Assassinate

You need to "full combo" on to their carries asap, or distract them enough to keep them out of the fight. Shadow Assault on top of them to get the most burst damage possible, as well, if they are close to their teammates, you will do big damage to them all.

You may die, actually, you most certainly will.
In an attempt to save their AD/AP carry, you will be focused, which is why it's important to take the carry out first and then try to survive.

What you're trying to do here is take out the other teams largest damage dealer so that your own carry can clean up the mess. If you manage to Shadow Assault & Rake the entire enemy team, they will be brought down low enough on health that they will probably not survive the fight.

Remember, you jump into the fight after it's been initiated by your team.

If your own team is being initiated on, the same "job description" above holds true for Talon.

Bide your time (even though it may only be a few seconds) and wait for the right moment to storm their carries.

So here we are.

The points listed below are very situational, and most can be applied to various heavy damage dealing champs.

Let's get to it!

Sight/Vision Ward Gank

If you have a Teleport, this gank is incredible and simple to do.

How many times have your teammates in top/bot lanes almost killed the enemy champs in their respective lanes, only to be killed themselves, while the enemies escape with little to no health?

The first time this happens, you need to be there. Often, the champs that get those first 2-3 kills end up dominating their respective lanes and help immensely in team fights as the game progresses.

To make this work in your teams favour, your teammates in both top/bot lanes need to drop a sight/vision ward in a bush that you can Teleport to. If your team has a Teemo, you can also Teleport to his mushroom's.

Once you see the fight breakout, simply Teleport to the ward/mushroom in the midst of the fight and help turn the tides.


Some points to keep in mind:
1) If a ward or mushroom is not available, you can always Teleport to a friendly minion if need be.
2) Try to always Teleport behind the fight or more correctly, position yourself to flank the enemies.
3) If you're going to Teleport in to the fight, start your Teleport where no other enemy champ can see you. This is important as you don't want to waste your Teleport because an enemy champ saw you Teleport'ing and warned their own teammates to back off.
4) Don't Teleport into the fight if it means you will lose your own turret (this is situational really, so weigh the up/downside of the outcome).
5) Don't Teleport into the fight with low health. If you just add to the kill count of the opposing team, you're not helping.


Scary Bush

Afraid of the enemy jungler or just want to check the bush for an enemy champ?
Don't be a nub and facecheck that bush.

Simply pace back and forth a bit (e.g. get closer to the bush, then back away, then go back towards it again, etc.) to see if the enemy champ will leave the bush and inadvertently revealy themself.

After one or two bait attempts, Rake the bush and immediately fall back. If you here the sound effect of something being hit, well done, as you've probably saved yourself from being ganked.

Also, all this can just be avoided if you just buy a ward, you cheap ***.


Juke Jump

There will be many occasions when the enemy jungler jumps in to initiate on you.

If your super escape ultimate Shadow Assault is on cooldown, then all you can really do is pray & run. Or is it?

Your Cutthroat ability can be a life saver.

To effectively use this ability, you need to implement some juking into your escape plan as well.

As you start to walk away from the enemy champ and enemy jungler champ, try to head toward some bushes. As the enemies follow you toward the bush, time your Cutthroat to jump to the enemy that's farthest from the bush. As they continue walking toward the bush like lemmings, you will have jumped far away from the bush, and one of the enemy champs will be silenced for 1 second. During this silence, you need to immediately throw a Rake at them to slow them down, so you can walk back to safety.

In some cases, if an enemy minion is further away from the bush than the enemy champs, Cutthroat to that minion instead and then throw your Rake out to slow the enemies.


Stubborn To The End

So you did your combo (full or otherwise) on the enemy champ and just didn't have enough juice to kill them. But you took them down pretty low.

They might be chugging a Health Potion now and staying in lane to grab the experience from minion kills and last hit for gold. They refuse to go back to base, and choose instead to stick around at low health and near the safety of their turret.

Time to send them back to base... in a body bag.

At this point the enemy champ will try to stay just out of range of your Cutthroat, and close enough to get last hits and experience. You're probably salivating at getting the kill, however, being low on health yourself you just can't risk getting in there to finish.

There is a risk that you can take, however, that should secure you the kill without dying yourself.

Instead of Cutthroat'ing to the enemy champ, Cutthroat to an enemy minion instead.

To get a kill this way, I suggest you do the following in order:

1) Drink Health Potion's if you have them to regain your health.
2) Start last hitting minions (you may take some damage from the enemy champ).
3) After 1 or 2 last hits, walk towards the next last hit, but don't last hit it. The enemy champ should be conditioned at this point to think that you're just getting last hits. Instead, Cutthroat to the enemy minion that's closest to the enemy champ.
4) Throw out a Rake on the enemy.
5) Follow them as they retreat and go to town on them. Ignite if you have it up, or let the bleed from Noxian Diplomacy kill them.

Either way, they will end up dying or getting so low that they have no choice to go back to base. They just won't expect you to Cutthroat to a minion to get in range to kill them.

If they know your abilities, they would have gone back to base right away and not given you the chance to do this.

All you really need in this situation is to have your abilities off cooldown and a decent enough amount of health so that the enemy doesn't just toe-to-toe with you.

I really hope you enjoyed reading my guide and learned a few things along the way.

You should walk away knowing that Talon is not an AD carry, but a burst champion. He's a fantastic matchup against mid AP champs, but sometimes your teams' champion makeup doesn't allow for yet another AD champ, especially at mid lane.

Try out his combo's and give him some time... he's a ton of fun, and can take down enemy champs in style.

Good luck playing!

December 6th, 2012
* Updated the Runes, Masteries and Items sections to reflect all the changes in the Season 3 patch that was released a couple of days ago

November 12th, 2012
* Updated the Masteries and Runes sections by utilizing the MobaFire.com "builders" to generate flashy content

November 9th, 2012
* Modified more content in a few more sections. I rushed to get some of the sections completed so the wording was still bothering me :P

November 7th, 2012
* Two videos added to the "Abilities" section:
1) Use Cutthroat to escape a gank.
2) Stay alive by knowing when to use your ultimate Shadow Assault defensively.

* Fixed some grammatical/spelling mistakes and added/removed minor content to a couple of sections.

November 6th, 2012
* Four videos added to the "Tactics & Gameplay" section:
1) Level 5 Talon + Skarner gank mid lane Mordekaiser.
2) Talon's full combo in mid lane vs Brand.
3) Talon's full combo from a bush on a roaming Riven.
4) How to teamfight correctly with Talon.

* One video added to the "Advanced Tactics & Gameplay" section:
1) Why Teleport should not be overlooked as a valid summoner spell for Talon.

November 5th, 2012
* This guide has finally been published