Of all the champions I have played, talon took me by far the longest to figure out the build that I liked most. For this reason, I have made this guide to hopefully help beginners to Talon. I would call my build an AD burst carry. I find that the strategy of focusing on a lot of damage very quickly rather than constant high damage. In addition, I find having limited defensive items is effective on him.

I take full ArPen marks and quints, MR per level glyphs, and flat armor seals. I use these for the obvious defensive and offensive benefits that the runes have.

I take 21/9/0 masteries. I specifically recommend the defensive tree ones, as the help with survivability.

I start with boots and health pots, since the extra mobility, in addition to talon's already amazing move speed makes him super amazing fast to help with harrassing and last hitting. then the health pots help with staying in lane. I find at level 4 or 5 I can usually get a kill, and then I can hopefully stay in lane until I have enough for BF sword. I get bf sword first because it helps so much with his damage and makes him a threat. Then I stay until I can hopefully get merc treads and some of wriggles. These give you some good survivability with the tenacity, MR, armor and lifesteal once you complete wriggles. not to mention a little damage. Then I will get blood thirster and another BF sword for even MORE sustain, mostly for fights at this point and more damage. then I get phantom dancer since the move speed and attack speed are amazing on him, not to mention crit will work well with the IE right after it. Then black cleaver to finish it off.

I used to try starting with long sword, or doran's blade, but boots works well with any build, whereas long sword limits you, and doran's is useless later. Then long sword was for getting brutaliser, but I do not like this item on talon. I tried it many times, but found ghost blade just didnt cut it for me. same with trinity, since the daamge from sheen proc only effects the damage from your attack when you use noxian diplomacy, and doesnt actually double the ability from the skill (as in, with sheen proc, you do 2x(AD) + ND damage, not 2x(AD+NDdmg)). as well, the other random stats from trinity are just so expensive and dont aid much to the burst damage for the price.

I also used to go boots > BF sword > treads > frozen mallet > atma's > offensive items, and though it works pretty well, I find the increased damage more effective to my play style than increased duration in the battle with some HP. I think 33% lifesteal, armor and MR are enough defense. with the offense you have with this build, you can probably burst any squishy to zero in 2 seconds or less using each skill once and an auto attack or two.

Good alternative items for this build are lat whisper an defensive items later.

I max rake first since the damage is very helpful for harassing in combination with last hitting. Hitting people only 2-3 times in lane at mid game can easily make them low enough to kill with your burst. then I don't put a point in cutthroat until level 4, at which point I begin seriously harassing, so I use the combo cutthroat and ND then rake, then get an auto attack or two in before they move back.

ND is maxed second for the burst damage it lets you deal. cutthroat is last, since, while having shorter CD and damage amplification, more damage in single combo is more useful early to mid game.

I take flash and exhaust, as flash is useful for catching people, running away, or positioning to go in with cutthroat or other skills. Exhaust since it is great early game to get some kills, and useful mid game to 1v2 people (if they both have little CC), and useful late game to take someone out of the battle, and let you kill everyone else before their carry does something.

So big points/overall strategy:

- I usually take mid, since it is great for the early farm, and made possible with good harass damage from rake. (this at least works in low ELO)
- use rake early to last hit and harass, as said above is good for mid
- use the damage items to burst people down for good ganking kills. you should be able to gank mid game lots around level 7 to 9
- Combo that I find best: get ND on, then cutthroat to target, rake, auto attack, ult to run to opposite side of them (between them and way they are running away), attack, ND, and kill him.
- large attack damage makes him unstopable mid to late game and the limited defense and amazing escape abilities make him very good at assassinating people.

This is the way to play him that I have found works best for me. This utilizes burst damage to kill people immediately if they are out of position, or low in lane. It also allows ocasionally staying in the fight and auto attacking to finish people off. let me know what you guys think! :)