Hello, and welcome to my guide on Talon, The Blade's Shadow.
This is the way I like to play talon and has proven to be pretty effective for me(scores like: 24/1/14 and 19/7/15 as well as 100% positive kill/death ratio).
The reason I'm putting this on is because I have read a few other Talon guides and I believe that they weren't really balanced.

I could also make a small video commentary of how to use this guide properly so please leave a comment whether I should do so.

Please make sure to read the whole guide and try it before you comment or vote. Any feedback is much appreciated.

Pros:

Extreme burst damage on slowed champions
Amazing chaser
His silence is a great interruptor
Very good Escaping abilities
Mid and Late game domination
Superstrong against squishies on 1v1 fights
Awsome Fighting Style ^^

Cons:

Hard at early game
Very dependable on his slow
Not very effective in teamfights
Expensive build -> needs a lot of farming and kills

My masteries go on 21/6/3 focusing a lot on Physical Damage in Offence and some defencive stats for survivability in Deffence. Notice that I also give one point at Exhaust since it's a must spell for Talon.

Greater Mark of Desolation Greater Quintessence of Desolation

For Runes I get Armor Penetration Marks, Flat Armor Seals, Attack speed Glyphs and Armor Penetration Quintessences. With these I get up to 30 armor penetration as starting stats, which is more than the armor of 80% of the players in eaerly game. This gives me a great boost for early game to deal tons of damage and harass constantly, farm freely and maybe get an easy FB.
I also take some Armor which gives me a significant bonus early game and more protection.
Finally, I get AS Glyphs to boost my attacks later in the game.

My Choices:

Probably the most usefull spell in the game. Great for Escaping, catching up with enemies, picking up free kills, getting away from the turret after a turret dive, etc. My #1 choice for most champions.


This is a MUST for Talon. Not only does it give him great boost in his field of combat - 1v1 fights- but it also boosts up his passive with a really nice slow. Never play a game without it.


Other Choices:


Very helpfull for many uses such as chasing down a runnaway or getting away from a fight to safety. If you're a fan of this spell try it on.


Can't say Talon is in great need of such a spell since his abilities don't cost a lot of mana but you can use it. My opinion is there are much better choices than this.


Can save you early-mid game and proves worthy many times. Still not my best choice for Talon. Certantly not as effective as other spells, since late game it's completely useless.


If you want to get behind the enemies with wards, backdoor, or save a turret it's the perfect spell. It also gives you a good boost to go shopping and get back in your lane in notime by losing almost no xp.


Excellent choice for people who are used to playing Talon like Tryn. If you get slowed, ulti+cleanse will get you out of there easily. Still, flash can do the same even better sometimes.


If your enemies constantly make it to safety with 10 or 50hp this is a good choice though Talon's slow and burst damage shouldn't give them that chance. Of course, I can't say this spell is a no-no.

Don't even look at these:

Leave this for the supports of the team.
Completely worthless until you bring down an inhibitor, IF you do so.
That's for junglers, not for Talon.
Seriously????:P
Leave this for the tank.
Just LAME! ^^

mercy cutthroat


mercy
Talon's passive makes him extremelly strong against any slowed,stunned,suppressed,silenced or immobilised enemy. This means that he can deal tons of damage in seconds if played correctly and with the right skill sequence.


Talon's first ability causes his next attack to deal significant bonus damage on a target. This also resets his attack timer, so it can be used to deal 2 quick attacks at once. Certantly a nuke on a slowed champion. Also the bleed reveals him on the map and makes it harder for him to escape. Note that Noxian Diplomacy can be used to deal bonus damage to TURRETS and BUILDINGS, to bring them down much faster.


Talon's most essential ability is Rake. It deals great AoE damage in a cone in front of him slowing his enemies. The 3 blades that hit them will deal 10% more damage when they return (buffed by his passive), which means its a nice harassment tool as well as a nuke. I personally always start the game with Rake since it gives me that bonus of my passive really early.

cutthroat
Talon's third ability is a shunpo-kind jump which deals no damage BUT silences the target for 1 second and gives Talon a great advantage in dealing crazy ammounts of damage as well as a nice bonus 15% more damage provided by this ability,(with his passive allways) before the target even reacts. It's very good for interrupting ultimates like Malzahar's, Nunu's, Katarina's... etc. Still, it isn't very helpfull for harassing opponents safely, that's why I level it up last.


Talon's ultimate is certantly overpowered, and I'm afraid that it will be nerfed. On activation, Talon becomes stealth for a few seconds and throws blades all around him dealing some damage. While stealthed he gains 40% movement speed, and after revealing himself the blades come back to him dealing more damage as they return. Great at picking up blind kills or last hits as well as escaping difficult fights.


When initiating a fight my skill sequence goes like this:

Q-E-W-Q-W-R-Q for a single enemy.

Q-W-R-W if jumping in the enemy team to pick up one kill and then get out safely.

E-Q-W-R-W-Q if trying to interrupt a mage or disable him and kill him fast.

Keep in mind that Talon ISN'T A TEAMFIGHT CHAMPION. He specialises at assassinating enemies left alone, and taking them one-on-one. That means he is a great backdoorer, ganker and ambusher, though isn't an incredible team-pusher. As I've said before, Talon is very "cc-dependable", which makes him great laner with champions who can stun, slow, silence or snare.

Stunners can be:

and so on...

Most usefull slower is Evelynn among others like:
or anyone who possesses a or a

Silencers are also good combos with Talon, like:
and so on...

Same happens with any kind of snare, with champs like:
and others.

Finally, any suppresing spell is really useful for ganks, meaning the presence of:
can be really helpful.



Talon doesn't work well with:

Champions with no slows, immobilisers, stuns and suppressing spells
Squishies with low early game damage
Squishy ranged champs like

who need someone to initiate

CORE:

I usually get these to profit from their magic resist boost as well as the cc reduction. You can also chose or which will give you more speed or damage output, though will reduce your survivability a lot. In case you are playing against a heavy AD team with low cc and magic damage, you should get for more tanky stats.


Personally one of my favourite items. Start with which will make your attacks and damage go crazy (it gets up to 45 armor penetration). Afterwards, you don't have to build it straight. You can also build at the same time. Still, its a MUST item since you need the Armor Pen and its passive will help you many times at running in or out of battles.


The most expensive item in the game and you don't even need the AP it gives you but still, your nuke boost. Let's see why this item is worth the money:

Passive: gives chanse to SLOW target => Passive triggers and you deal more damage.
Passive: after cast you deal bonus damage of your AD. So if you hit someone with E and then with Q, your basic attack will probably be a 1k nuke.
Movement speed increase, very helpful for chasing down enemies and lane switching.
Attack speed and Critical Chance, greatly associate with

.
Small mana and health boost for more survivability.
Extra physical damage output.



Without doubt a great item for any AD dps. Except the AD boost and the critical chanse, its passive works greatly with Talon since and collaborate with it giving you a 55%+ critical chance to hit the target by 250% of the dmg. If you're lucky, that could mean 250% of your physical attack + of + of 's passive, resulting to over 1-1.5k damage with one hit. Pretty cool, huh?


That's the last item you should get to increase your survivability, IF you get that far in the game. Having 2 of those makes you almost invincible with crazy damage and lifesteal. You will deal so much that 75% of the time you will be healing yourself more than the damage you take, making a 1v1 fight a sure victory.

OPTIONAL:

Certantly seems a very good item for Talon. It gives him a significant health boost as well as a great passive which triggers mercy with every hit. Still as I played along with Talon, I found out that he doesn't need that passive to trigger mercy, since most of the time, is more than enough to deal insane ammounts of damage to the target before the slow is over.


This is a MUST when playing against a heavy armored team. that 45 armor penetration is very helpful, but you can't kill a tank that easily if you're against a mordekeiser with 250 armor or a rammus with 300 armor. Very strong item and a good choice, especially since the patch when it got a really buffed item, so I don't see any reason of not buying it.


If you find it hard to build such expensive items like trinitiy force or this is your solution. It provides you a 40% armor penetration as well as a damage boost. Very good choice if your gold farming isn't going as you would want it to go.


Are you having a huge success in owning your opponents? Do you have large killstreaks? If you do, then try this on and stack it up. I'm sure you'll find it really useful. ;)


A defencive item I personally wouldn't use since I dont engage enemies for too long, but it will be very useful if you need to increase your survivability against heavy AD enemies.


A nice item, helpful if you need the armor. It will still give you the AD you need as well as some nice critical strike chance.


If you're having trouble with heavy cc and really strong mages you should buy this item as a first. You will enjoy the small hp and mana boost as well as the mr boost, but what you will really like is that passive, ruining your enemies' first spells (usually stuns). If you're playing against a it's a MUST item to ruin her combo, therefore her burst damage.

As soon as you spawn, take your and catch a lane, top or bottom. You and your teammate can try getting first blood if he has enough damage output early. Your exhaust should be enough to catch up with your enemy and kill him before he reaches the turret, if you catch him in the bushes. If something goes wrong, you always have your flash to get away.

Start the laning phase by using to harass the enemies and keep them from the minions. Try getting as many last hits as possible. GOld farming is essential if you are about to follow this item build. After level 6, go back to spawn, grab your and and say hello to MId game.

This is your time to shine in the battlefield and make your enemies fear you. It's your time to get fed. Start laneswitching and ganking by chosing mostly the squishies. Combine your abilities with and you will get enough kills(=>money) to buy your first 2-3 items. When you start building go first for the and then for the rest. Don't forget to keep buying health pots from early game to help you stay more in the battlefield.
While laneswitching, try jungling on your way to maximize your gold income.

When the teams stop laning and start team-pushing make sure you move between the lanes farming minions alone and pushing equally, but always catching up with your team before fights.
REMEMBER: NEVER initiate a fight. Always stay hidden and run in afterwards, by focusing the mages-squishies.

Most of the time I don't get there, but if you do, then that's the time for you to stop chasing kills and start backdooring towers. There is no shame in helping your team push by soloing towers with minions. your is a great tool to do that.

Of course don't forget to keep killing enemies. It's very important that throughout the game you are ALWAYS hitting'n'killing something.

TEAMFIGHTS:
As I said before, you should NEVER initiate. Try spotting your enemies around the map and ganking solo anyone left alone. That way you will weaken their team and make the carries stick to the tank. If they don't, then you keep ruining their game and eventually your team will ace them and get in their base. Always focus the easiest-to-kill champs but also the ones who deal more damage.

It's very important that you learn to estimate your target and the fight. That's the golden rule when playing an assassin. Sometimes you might not be able to kill someone though he seems weak. Remember ultimates like karthus' or soraka's, or summoner spells or even missing enemies from the map. Everything is at stake when you are about to initiate on an enemy.

FInally, make sure that when you jump in the fight there is almost no way for the enemies to suppress you, stunn you or disable you. That way you'll get them one after the other like strolling in a park.
TIP: keep your ultimate for last moments in case something goes wrong.

This is an essential part of the game for you. Maybe you are not a jungler champion, but you do need to switch lanes and constantly gang enemy champions. That being said, you need to get through the jungle, so why not get some extra gold boost on the way? try farming as many creeps as you can and remember the rule of "ALWAYS KILLING SOMETHING/SOMEONE".

If there is an enemy jungler, make sure you ward the jungle and ambush him anywhere. Most easy place to do that is around the small drake or close to the baron. Also ward the red buffs if you have enough money, or ask a teammate support to do it with u.

BUffs:

Early and mid-game you don't really need buffs but here's why you should always chase them in lategame:

RedBuff: Classic for all AD damage dealers. For you, it's even better. It gives you that nice slow you so eagerly want with each attack. No other teammate should get that but you.

Blue buff: It's not for Damage dealers, really, and you shouldn't be very aggresive on taking that, since your mages or supports of the team need it more, but why not get it when you can? Your abilities cost really low mana, have really low cd and you can spam them as much as you want. Having the blue buff, gives you not only the CDR that makes your ultimate's cooldown be almost the one of a normal ability, but also gives you a huge boost on spaming your abilities faster and more.

Anyway, if you can't get yourself a buff, your champion is very good at chasing down the ones who got it. Be a bit selfish and solo-kill them whenever you can. That way, neither your team will complain for your stealing buffs, nor will you have to fight with them to get what you want. In addition, you will start making the whole jungle your own, which is a great advantage for your team. TO achieve that, you need a lot of wards, especially on drakes and buffs. Make sure that happens by either you or a teammate.

This is the guide on HOW TO PLAY TALON the way I do. It's purely made based on my experience in-game and I hope it helps you people improve. Please try this guide and let me know if you have any additions or corrections to make.
Also, let me know if I should make a video commentary explaining this guide further more.
Thank you for your time reading this. :)