Talon Build Guide by xRosco19x

Repulish

This is my second Talon guide. My first guide was pretty bad since I did not know how to code right and I made some horrible calls on what masteries and runes to get. I made the guide a lot better but because it was already voted down a ton so no one new came to see it improved I decided to republish it entirely. So lets get to it.

Introduction

First things First, This is my 3rd guide here on Mobafire, and this time it's Talon. So, let's get to it then.

So who is Talon?

Talon is not a Bruiser, not a Tank, not a carry, he is an assassin. You could say an AD Caster as he relies on combo's rather than auto attacks.

Talon gets his damage from stacking Pure AD, Armor penetration, and cooldown reduction. Talon has a burst when he is fighting, meaning he does A LOT of damage a VERY little amount of time.

Talon is the type of champion that when they see you pick him champion select, you think, "damn it....." and your team thinks, "DON'T FEED TALON!!!"

Now that you know the basic of what kind of badass Talon is, Let's get on with the Guide!

Pros and Cons

Pros + He is an assassin, and he is the best at it + Can escape most situations + Extremely fun to play + Counters most other mid matchups + Destroys towers quickly + Farms well with Rake + If timed right, Shadow Assault can be used to escape most situations. + Shadow Assault destroys teamfights.

h hhh MercyCutthroat hhh

Cons - If shut down early he falls off late. - Prone to vision wards and oracle's to counter his Shadow Assault - Can be hard to play - Countered easily if picked early in the draft pick - Very item dependent - Squishy early on - Cutthroat can be baited for you to use if they have a stun or a gank

Runes

Attack Damage Marks and Quints together give 15 AD Starting, and if u start Long Sword you get 25 AD, not including masteries!

I have started taking these over Armor, because it is my preferred way to go, you van take armor if you please, or mix them like most pros do, but I prefer 72 HP over 9 Armor.

Magic Resist Glyphs,Good against ap mids like Nidalee or LeBlanc who stack more ap early game. It can also be good against ad mids who have a magic damage move like Decoy or if they have an ap jungler like a Fiddlesticks.

Attack Damage Quints, to increase damage on Talon's entire skill set and give the damage early game to set up kills and assists in lane. His burst will increase significantly with this.

Masteries

Summoner's Wrath : Grants 5 ability power and 5 attack damage when Ignite is on cooldown.

Sorcery : Grants 4% Cooldown Reduction which is good for using combos.

Butcher : Makes you do more damage to minions, making it easier to last hit.

Deadliness : Gives 12 Attack Damage at level 18, what else could we want?

Havoc : Grants 2% more damage which makes a noticeable difference at early levels.

Weapon Expertise : Possibly the best mastery there is for Talon. Grants a full 8% Armor Penetration.

Brute Force : Grants 3 Attack Damage.. not much other than that.

Sunder : Gives 6 armor penetration, dealing massive damage to enemies without armor in early levels.

Executioner : Allows Talon to kill low health enemies easier than he usually does.


Durability : Gives a good amount of Health regen, so you can recover from harass without spamming potions.

Hardiness : Gives 5 armor, good against AD mid laners like Zed

Resistance : 2 Magic Resist, good against AP tops like Nidalee or Cho'Gath.

Veteran's Scars : Gives 30 health.

Skill Sequence

Mercy

Talon's passive. It makes his basic attacks, including Noxian Diplomacy deal extra damage to enemies who are slowed, stunned, etc. This passive is great for picking up kills along with jungles like Nunu or Sejuani.

Mercy

This ability has the potential of dealing massive damage along with Rake and Cutthroat, since it will deal more damage to them after they are silenced or slowed by your other abilities. Max this second.

This move will be maxed first. It deals a ton of damage and slows the enemy. It is an AoE move in casted wherever you like in front of you. It can pick up kills, set up kills, or be used while running away.

Cutthroat

This is Talon's initiating ability. It is a single target ability, jumping onto your enemy a little bit behind them. After initial use it slows the target by 99% for .25 seconds, just long enough to get a Noxian Diplomacy procced by Mercy off for a really quick burst. It also amplifies your damage to the target for a short duration.Max this Last.

Cutthroat

This is Talon's ultimate ability and it fits in very well with his playstyle and his burst. Talon disperses a ring of blades around him, turning invisible for 6 seconds. After the duration the blades come back to him. The blades deal damage for EACH individual blade going through an enemy so try and hit as many as possible on the enemy for the most potential damage. During the duration you gain 40% movement speed as well, recently added, you now have an indication telling you that your speed is increased.

Items:Core and Full Build

My favorite boots to get on Talon, best for assassinating and getting as many Rake's as you can in a fight. There are plenty other options for boots you can get, these are just my personal favorite.

This item is very essiential to early game and will increase your damage by a lot. If you use Rake and have armor penetration quints, and along with this, you can ignore almost all their armor early enough, and can get an easy kill with Shadow Assault. Turn this into The Black Cleaver last. Unless you are snowballing hard enough then you get it before the last 2 items.

This item gives great stats all around and is one of the best for Talon. If the enemy just has no armor built at all this item should absolutely destroy them. Now, this item gives 40 AD, and ignores 40% of the enemies armor. Flat out, this item will destroy carries, and along with Shadow Assault, teamfights.

This item gives a pure 100 ad. 100 AD on an assassin with some of the highest AD ratios in the game! This item is a must have and along with The Black Cleaver and Last Whisper, it will destroy anyone that is not a Malphite with 4 warmogs! :D

This item is a great item all around. Usually the Rejuvenation Beads will build into this later, but I stopped building this every game because it does not get used to its full potential along with Shadow Assault. During teamfights you are not going to be basic attacking too much, so the passive effect on this is not used to its highest potential. On the other hand, the active. Listen , and i mean listen closely. If not from me but from anyone who has taken this on Talon. This active is amazing!!! This active deal AOE damage counted for 100% of your ad damage. So lets get this straight. At full build, you will have about 520 AD. So your burst will do about 500 extra damage from this item ALONE... Do not pass this up IF you are fed enough.

This is a nobrainer. Wait, but I have one already in the core... SO?!70 AD, and lifesteal. At max stacks it given 100 AD and even more lifesteal. You know whats better than 100 AD? 200 AD! :D Take this if you find yourself in small skirmishes after the teamfight itself is over. This item can keep you alive in sticky 1v1s. Take this if you need the lifesteals. Even if you do not, take it anyways. You are Talon.

Take this if the enemy ap is getting some kills. Even if they aren't it is still a great item with a great passive. Especually for Talon. It gives 55 AD and 36 MR. The great thing about it, the passive. The lower hp you are, the more damage you get. It also gives a magic damage protective shield. So while you are in the middle of the enemy team Bursting like hell with Shadow Assault, they may be focusing you. If not great, if they are, you are getting lower and your damage is getting higher. And I mean by like 50 AD at really low hp. So they are screwing themselves either way.

This is one of the best items if you are getting focused. Along with GA, this item will ensure your survival in a fight. Hoe does it do that? This item removes all debuffs instantly, and makes others weaker for a duration. So did you get jumped andthey have a Curse of the Sad Mummy on yu? Just use this active and run. Combine this with GA for ensured survival.

This item gives 1000 hp. It makes you look tanky and they will not focus you, instinctively. For an assassin to have that much hp is going to be a pain in the *** for them to try and kill you.

This is a nobrainer. Take this item if you are getting focused and dying too early in fights. Just be sure that if you die and come back with the rest of your team dead and the enemies surrounding you, just sell it and get something tankier.

This is what you would get if you sell Guardian Angel so you can get tankier. Also, you can get this even if you aren't getting focused on a few condition. Your tank is not, and the enemies are getting away. It is a great item and makes you incredibly tanky.

Mid Lane Match Ups

Difficulty: Easy
Now this should be an easy lane, she will most likely use her Q to farm and as soon as she does, harass her. Careful to use your Shadow Assault when she uses her ulti, she can get out of the range of the ulti. She is almost uncatchable when she hits 6, so kill her before. Difficulty: Easy
Akali is pretty damn op, but she is squishy after all, and she is not very strong until level 6, even then you can kill her. Get an Oracle's Elixer so she won't get away so easily and you should have no problem with this. Be sure to ward so you don't give her a kill. Difficulty : Varies
My main mid laner as well as Talon, he can easily stop your harass and burst you back to kill you. So, here is what you need to do. Wait for his Pillar of Flame or Sear to be used to go in, try to dodge his Sear after another ability so you do not get stunned. Ward your lanre and be sure to shut him down early so he doesn't carry later. Difficulty: Easy
This is such an easy lane, wait for her poison to be used up and jump her, wala! you win this lane, care at level 6 so she can't kill you with her stun and poison plus ignite combo's, consider taking Barrier so you can negate some poison damage. Difficulty:Hard
She is actually a pretty hard lane to fight. She does a lot of damage with her Crescent Strike, has a shield, a pull back, and a very short cooldown, long range dash. You should not fight her. Difficulty:Easy
Anivia starts out with the least amount of hp in the game, about 400 flat, so have fun with that, be wary of her passive and try to dodge her stun before you go in, pretty much the same as everyone in mid, dodge, you win. When she ulti's you, get out of it asap! She will deal tons of damage to you with her other abilities and ulti DPSing you all the same time. Difficulty:Easy
Easy lane here, he has a large burst with his ulti but before that you can kill him pretty easily. Wait for his Playful/trickster to end to fully go in. Try to bait it as much as you can and you can kill him easily. Once he hits level 6 he gets pretty powerful. Easy, piece of cake, on a scale from 1 to 10 on difficulty, he is a -4. Countered in every way here, he is dead. Simple, dodge his stun and kill him. Hell, take Smite to kill his towers if you want and his damage gets even less. Difficulty:NONE
Easy as hell, he cannot kill you until you kill him, and a fed talon vs. fed Karthus? Lol never. Stay by minions so [Lay Waste]] does like, 30 damage. Kill him whenever you can do it safely. Difficulty:Varies
Talon's silence is more ranged than Kassadin's is so you can harass him before he can you.He is pretty squishy, but has a great late game split push or backdoor so you need to look out for that. Try not to commit for a kill in lane unless he ulties on you then you can jump him while it is on cd. Difficulty:Varies
Now this is a little weird, depending on the enemy and you, you can rape them, or be raped. It all depends on you and them really, If you can harass her before she can you and get out without her using Bouncing Blades back, it can go your way. Play carefully and farm as much as you can. DifficultyEasy
Pretty easy lane if you can out harass her. Her passive is really nothing since Rake and Shadow Assault don't need to focus on a single target you can kill both the real and fake LeBlanc. Also the mark above her head after you use Noxian Diplomay is above the real one only, not the fake. So you can tell the differance. Difficulty:Varies
The enemy Lux depending on how good or bad they are will depend on if they use their stun to harass or stop you from harassing. Wait for the snare to used to go in, so she can;t escape without flash or when the snare comes back. Her ulti will do a lot of damage so consider taking barrier against her. Difficulty:Easy
This is a very easy lane, he has no cc except ulti, at level 6, so levels 1 to 5 kill him as much as possible, dodge his silence and you can go in without worrying about dying or taking more damage than him. Difficulty:Easy
Don't let him farm his Q, harass as much as possible and avoid his stun. His ulti does nothing to you since it damages off of your ability power and Talon has none. Wait for his stun to be down then go in and kill him. Difficulty:Varies
Depending on the Zed, they can get stomped or be stomped, after level 6, it all depends on who gets there burst down first. For example, when Zed uses R, use Shadow Assault so his basic attacks won't count to deal damage a second time and try to burst him before he can you. Consider Barrier to counter his ulti's damage and to most likely win the fights. Difficulty:Hard
Lee Sin is a very strong mid laner and has a very good early game, he has multiple moves to escape with so bursting him with your ulti combo isn't such a good idea. He has passive lifesteal and a shield, and can knock you back into his tower. Play passively and wait for a gank. Difficulty:Hard
Lissandra is a very hard lane for Talon, she has a very low cooldown skill shot, that explodes on impact damaging enemies behind the target that it hit. She has an AoE stun and happens instantly. She can get away easily with her E, and can negate all your damage with her ulti. Do not fight Lissandra.

Before Voting!

Before voting this down (if you are), please message me telling me what i can change to change your vote.

Thanks

Thanks for reading this guide!

Credit to Vapora Dark for helping me along this guide!

Credit to jhoihoi for the line dividers!

Please make sure to check out my Wukong Guide as well if you enjoyed this one!
The True Wuju Master