Hey guys, my name is Hugeboeh and I'm currently a B4 on EUNE. Most of the time I play soloqueue with high damage/high risk champs such as Yasuo, Talon and LeBlanc, but ranked matches I prefer to play as a premade botlane. I've been playing Talon quite much lately, and I've tried numerous different builds on him. I'm not trying to create a new meta, I just want to share my opinions on Talon with you guys. Without further ado, let's learn how to dominate with Talon, the Blade's Shadow!

As a high damage melee champion, Talon is mostly played as a midlane assassin. I however like to play him most of the time in toplane due to top being quite isolated especially in soloqueue, and usually your success in toplane depends only on your own game. Talons kit is designed to burst enemies low and run away, and he is capable of very nice looking combos. He is a strong lane bully due to Q crit and ranged W poke, and also has the ability to escape intense situations with his E.

However, Talon is rather squishy without extra resists and HP, and can be bursted down by other assassins or carries. This is why you will be building bonus HP and resists rather than full damage. Talon is also very weak against hard CC; for example Morgana's Q lockdown is lethal to Talon. Talon should be treated with respect as he is capable of carrying games alone, and you should never underestimate his damage, but easiest way to win him is to lock him down and focusing him early. Don't let him gain a lead early, otherwise the game is lost.

First of all, I'm a quite bad player compared to the majority of League. I still know what I'm talking about, so trust me and try building Talon like this in blind pick.
You will be building lethality reds for armor shred, AD purples for extra damage early, armor and scaling health yellows for extended survivability and MR blues for extra resist for early levels. You will also use one mana glyph: due to Talon's relatively high mana usage in lane you need extra mana to last longer in lane. Otherwise you will be pushed under tower all the time, which makes killing the enemy very hard due to lack of CC.


So yeah,
9 lethality reds
3 armor and 6 scaling HP yellows
8 MR and 1 mana blues
3 AD quints.

Simple as that.

Stormraiders over thunderlords in any matchup. You will be abusing Talon's high mobility, and after finishing Youmuu's, Boots of Swiftness and Triforce, you have the highest mobility out of all champs. Your traditional WQR+AA combo will deal massive damage and proc Stormraiders, so you will catch up on any champion you want to.
Ferocity tree; you will go for most damage. Sorcery will help you deal more damage, and in my opinion it is more effective than Fury. Fresh blood or Feast was not a tough choice, due to your Q healing you upon killing unit with it you won't need that 20 health fund. Fresh blood makes you poke harder every six seconds. Vampirism over natural talent 7 days a week; AD scaling won't be necessary due to high damage build, whereas Vampirism helps your lane sustain AND boosts Q heal. Battle trance is most useful here, due to some trades extending longer against tankier champs. On squishy champs Double-edged sword is *****, and Bounty hunter won't really help that much out in toplane.

Cunning tree; Wanderer for extra mobility. Assassin is more useful than Secret stash as you will most of the time start with refillable. Next you have Meditation. Why? because of your mana usage. At 45% cdr, you WILL spam abilities. And they cost mana. This mastery helps you stay in lane longer, which can be crucial against someone like Nasus. Dangerous game is in all scenarios best one to use here, as it gives you time to survive for example enemy ignite after finishing him. Then intelligence for capping 45% CDR, which will be more useful on ability-trusting champ, and finally Stormraiders.

SPAM THAT E. It has no mana cost and lets you basically teleport over walls. It's like playing assassins creed in Rift. It helps you gank lanes fast, track low targets quicker and escape tricky situations. It also looks awesome.

Classic Talon combo: W the enemy, while the blades are in air Q him (either stab or jump-stab), and then R. Finish combo with AA; you will proc passive and most of the time kill the enemy.

The most important thing of playing Talon is to know what your enemy is doing. Don't just spam abilities, learn how to use them and when to use them. I hope everyone learned something useful in this guide, feel free to give feedback!

See you all in Rift!