Talon is the latest champion addition to enter the league, and I am surely liking him so far. The assassin role has always been very appealing to me, and i've played shaco for example to every extend in the past.

Since this is my first guide I am fully aware of the fact that it'll be flawed, and I merely ask you people to be kind and actually try the build the way it's supposed to, before criticizing.

Once this is said, I really appriciate constructive criticism and feedback as to how the build can be improved, all I know, basically, is that the build works, be it a decent all around build, or a mere pubstomper, is not for me to decide.

Follow this guide, and become a critting menace, They. Will. FEAR YOU.

True fear..

I hope you enjoy the read!

Pros:
[*] Awesome damage output/burst.
[*] Very low cooldowns, zero downtime.
[*] Great ganking potential early/mid/late game.
[*] Fun champion, easy to play.
[*] Great farming potential.

Cons:
[*] Need to be very aware of surroundings.
[*] Map awareness.
[*] Not an initiator.

I've decided to go with these runes to utilize in cooldown reduction to really make those fairly short cooldowns accessible at all times, you won't be caught without your ultimate to either execute a gank or to use as an escape mechanism, ofcourse the cd reduction glyphs is a waste if you don't accompany them with the Ionian boots of Lucidity and Brutalizer/Ghostblade.

Although some might think that using zeals for AD runes is a waste I think it's a nice addition to the AD quints, which grants you the 15 ARP + 11 extra AD, making your earlygame extremely powerful, this'll in most cases, if you havn't already, allow you to gank your lane immidiately at level 6.

Pretty standard masteries, even though you should have enough AS later on in the game with ghostblade + phantom dancer, the 3/4 in Alacrity is still nice, i'd say it's up to the individual playing Talon whether or not he/she would want the 2/2 in Offensive Mastery instead for the extra last-hitting capabilities early game, yet, with the 11 AD + ARP from runes, this shouldn't be a problem in the first place.

I've done a lot of experimenting, and whilst Rake is a pretty useless ability for its damage late game, its damage early game is strong, and an excellent harassing tool / initiator. Not only does Rake have a decent slow + damage output early game for harassment it also allows you to take down entire creep waves ASAP throughout the entire game, making your farm capabilities very good, which is important if you're running and expensive item build.

- Because of it's broken awesomeness in the current state of the meta.


- Allows you to gank easily early game, makes good usage of Talons passive.


- I hate you so much. You'll probably get murdered in your sleep for picking this.

I start out with 3x+. This'll allow me to dodge possible harras from my enemies, and grant me an escape/chase advantage early on my lane. The 3xwill help me sustain my laning for a decent period of time, I usually don't go back to town before I have enough money for bothAND. This is important, since Talon doesn't have any health sustainability on his own. Right after i've bought these items, I rush, this'll boost my damage even more, and already make me an extreme threat at this point in the game. After that I seek to finish myandto acquire some attack speed, which seems a necessity to me at this point in the game with his huge damage output, it'll also grant me a fair amount of crit chance, and you'll basically be eating a way the squishy's of the enemy team at this point without trouble, which after all, is an assassin's job in a team fight. After this I make sure to grab theASAP and finishto become an unstoppable critting menace. To finish it all off with a blast, you add anotherto your collection, this'll cap your lifesteal and never leave you without health, and boost your damage even further, making every AA a devastating critical blow to your enemy.

With the right farming throughout major parts of the game and a handful of kills and assists, this item build will allow you to crit about 1,3k with AA's and 1,4k+ with Q activated + E, the capped lifesteal from yourwill allow you to fill up your petty health pool in two jabs on two innocent creeps. You'll be able to take down most champions in a few swift blows which'll happen faster than lightning strikes with youractiavted accompanied by your. These items accompanied bywill also give you a decent amount of crit chance which'll be around 72%, which from my perspective is MORE than enough. You'll also have a decent amount of cooldown reduction from your++ Masteries, which'll make those short cooldowns even shorter, and leave you with ZERO downtime in your killing spree.


Defensive options:
- Will also allow your passive to work at all times, even though I merely keep up a constant red buff instead to assure this / boosts health pool greatly / great chasing tool.
- Against those nasty ultimates, nasty enemy globals, and nasty AP carries. Mana being an unecessary stat on this item for you, it's still a great defensive item option. NOTE: as an assassin you shouldn't be initiating anything, you should wait for the teamfight to begin, let your enemies use their major CC ASAP and then go in, take out AD/AP carries and out.
- Oh yeah, i've tried it, and it works in most instances for Talon as well, this item rocks on shaco, since your deceive will have time to recharge as you revive from the dead. Same thing happens with your low CD on your ultimate which is a GREAT escape mechanism. Additionally, it gives great Armor/MR.

Most players i've seen playing Talon, gets aat some random point in the game, whilst I see this item as GREAT addition to his extreme burst, I don't find it a necessity at all, my build does fine without Trinity, and I mostly get a chance to finish my build as well. I see most Talons doing bad with only their precious Trinity in their inventory, whilst i'm a critting-lifestealing-menace. Hands off, it's still a great offensive item for Talon though, go for it.

In most normal games, people just don't give a ****, and go where they please, same goes for you in that case, in this case, it can be a real ***** to lane against two ranged champions, fear not though, your 3 health potions and maxed out Rake ability will still allow you to farm properly and get that CS running, and eventually you'll be ganking their squishy ***es.

Even though i've yet to play him in ranked yet, because i'm waiting for Season 2 to launch, i'd imagine him being a decent solo top laner against whomever, top lane opposition often consists of irelia/nasus/renekt/ww/gp etc etc. which is easily countered as a well-played talon, and should allow you to farm immensely.

In most games with Talon, I tend to peak at around 250-300 CS, depending on the game, when nothings cooking around the map, I seek lanes with creep exp/gold getting wasted and farm away, push lanes to stress out my enemy, and dive jungle for some extra pennies (unless I have a jungler still doing his thing anyways). Bottom line is, it's important to farm as Talon, because he's running an expensive item build, furthermore, you need to stack up your bloodthirsters if you've been killed, or just acquired them.

In normals I see it being a problem to get red buff, and keep it up most of the time, but in decent elo ranked play, it should be possible to get a team that'll help/allow you to have red buff whenever it's available, because it scales super well with Talon, and removes the necessity of having a Trinity Force or Frozen Mallet to trigger your passive, AND it gives you a sweet useful DOT and a chasing tool.

Your role in teamfights is the same as any other assassin, to put it in simpler words, you have the role of an extreme assassin, and your gig is to take out the main threat your team is facing at all times, (the AD and AP carry) but this threat is guarded by a bull on steroids and a bulky guy yelling "DEMACIAAA!" all the time, the enemy also has two people who can lock you down and disable you completely, which would lead to your early demise in the fight. Therefore, the correct approach to this gig would be to wait for a major fight to start cooking and eventually begin, the two disables are used, and the fight is on, you dive in swiftly and take out the AD carry or AP carry (priority varies) and leaves swiftly again, once the job is done and sealed. Congratulations, you've just been a successful asset and assassin to your team!

[*] You don't intiate
[*] You don't hang out in the fight forever
[*] You don't focus the tank
[*] You don't allow your opposition to disable you

Oh by the way, Talons "Q" ability? Yep, that's right, it triggers on turrets just like Nasus' "Q" ability, mid/late game, it'll make Talon a BEAST at pushing turrets + lanes (with his incredible rake ability, "W") Whilst the enemy team is ****ing around top or mid or somewhere on the other side of the map doing god knows what, you'll be pushing bot lane very quickly, and take down the turret before they even realize you were there. You were unaware and got ambushed while doing so? Flash + Ultimate "R" is your friend, and you'll get away with it.

[*] Stay in the shadows, wait for fight to commence, count to five, engage.
[*] Always take out their squishies / main threats.
[*] Make sure to farm a lot of CS and get that gold count up (gank lanes).
[*] Backdoor/push/SneakySneaky whatever you wanna call it, push turrets while your enemy is not looking.
[*] If you're playing against an enemy jungler, leave town with ward, ward his red buff, gank + steal buff once he engages the lizard. Acquire buff - > gank your lane with passive triggered.[*] Don't feed, don't be a jerk, don't lie to your mother.
[*] Estimate every situations end results before commencing.
[*] Know your abilities, and get the maximum effect out of them.
[*] Killsteal from Soraka EVERYTIME.
[*] Look super awesome with your hood and cape, pretend you're Batman!!! No? Alright worth a shot.
[*] Nanananananna Batmaaaan! still no? alright i'll stop...
[*] Keep your bloodthirsters stacked at all times.
[*] Getting disabled much? Tryhard and get Mercury's instead of Ionian.

Now I know many of you will be sitting in your chair going, "Nigga say what? no Trinity, no Mallet, no survivability? WHAT ABOUT DAT PASSIVE BRO?", you're correct Tyrone, you'll have to keep red buff up to trigger your passive, (which is a great deal of damage right there). And when it comes to the survivability, I just don't see the point, really, if you die all the time, you're not playing the role of an assassin correctly, you shouldn't be taking this much damage in the first place, and Talon is very squishy even with a great addition to his health pool, it just won't make him more bulkier, he'll still be squishy, so why not just make him insanely powerful instead? (Ofcourse, you should seek to utilize in defense as well if the situation calls for it - see Defensive options above)

Anyways, thanks for sticking to the end, I hope you enjoyed reading! Please rate my guide based on something, and not just because you hate me for some reason -> :(

Cheerios!

Changed Seals + Glyps to Armor + MRES/lvl instead of Attack Damage, furthermore changed masteries to 21/6/3, getting both extra armor + mres early game from runes + masteries really helps your early game, and you benefit a lot more from it, than some extra damage output, the only downside is that you'll have a shorter buff duration on red buff once acquired.