Talon Build Guide by xprofound

Introduction

Talon is a melee assassin. Your goal as Talon is to deal as much as possible to high priority targets. See that Ashe? Swoop in and kill her. See that Annie? Kill her before she can AOE your whole team.

Talon is a very good damage dealer early game against squishy carries. He's exceptionally good because he's does burst damage and scales extremely well with pure AD. His ulti is what you use to kill with most of the time; it can also be used to escape if you're caught. Talon should take a solo lane, whether mid or top depending the matchup. However, he can also go bot with an aggressive support like Alistar or Taric.

His Lore:
; Talon's earliest memories are the darkness of Noxus' underground passages and the reassuring steel of a blade. He remembers no family, warmth, or kindness. Instead, the clink of stolen gold and the security of a wall at his back are all the kinship he has ever craved. Kept alive only by his quick wits and deft thievery, Talon scraped out a living in the seedy underbelly of Noxus. His mastery of the blade quickly marked him as a threat, and Noxian guilds sent assassins to him with a demand: join their ranks or be killed. He left the bodies of his pursuers dumped in Noxus' moat as his response.

The assassination attempts grew increasingly dangerous until one assailant met Talon blade-for-blade in a match of strength. To his surprise, Talon was disarmed and facing down his executioner's sword when the assassin revealed himself to be General Du Couteau. The General offered Talon the choice between death at his hand, or life as an agent of the Noxian High Command. Talon chose life, on the condition that his service was to Du Couteau alone, for the only type of orders he could respect were from one he could not defeat. Talon remained in the shadows, carrying out secret missions on Du Couteau's orders that took him from the frigid lands of Freljord to the inner sanctums of Bandle City. When the general vanished, Talon considered reclaiming his freedom, but he had gained immense respect for Du Couteau after years in his service. He became obsessed with tracking down the general's whereabouts. Talon's suspicions led him to the doors of the Institute of War, where he joined the League of Legends in order to find those responsible for Du Couteau's disappearance.

''The three deadliest blademasters in all of Valoran are bound to the house of Du Couteau: my father, myself, and Talon. Challenge us, if you dare.'' - Katarina Du Couteau

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Change Log

2011/11/07
Included Summoner Spells and Items sections.
2011/11/07
Changed some of the item placement and added optional runes.
2011/11/08
Added a second build, this build is more tanky-wise talon for more sustainability during team fights.

Abilities

This is your singe-target nuke. After casting the damage portion, your opponents take additional damage over time and are reveal for the duration. Since Noxian Diplomacy resets your auto-attack timer, you want to auto-attack once and then activate the spell immediately. The extra damage can mean a difference between getting a kill and watching the enemy walk away with 10 health.

Noxian Diplomacy works well with a Sheen/ Trinity Force. Noxian Diplomacy can also be used on turrets to help you push it down a lot quicker.


This is your farming tool. Once you have enough AD, you can use Rake and kill entire minion waves (except the cannon minions). During the laning phrase, you want to use this to harass your lane opponents and slowly wither them down. Besides the damage portion, Rake also applies a small AOE slow which can help you catch up to fleeing enemies. This also compliments your passive.

Cutthroat
This is your gap closer and your one point-wonder. Cutthroat gives you a percentage damage boost, but does no damage on its own. You mainly want to use it to close the distance between fleeing enemies. Be mindful that you want to hold it for champions with Flash and blinks spells. Wait and activate Cutthroat after they have flashed/blinked away. Be careful if they flash over a wall as you need vision to Cutthroat to them.

Cutthroat also applies an 1 second silence. Not much of a big deal, but you can use it to cancel channel spells like Death Lotus and Absolute Zero.


This is your Ultimate. This is the spell the defines Talon. Once activated, you enter stealth and a ring of blades appear around you and deal damage to any enemies it hits. During stealth, you receive a massive MS boost. After 2.5 seconds or when you attack, you exit stealth and the blades come back to you, dealing more damage to any enemies it hits.

This spell can used offensively and defensively. You typically want to use it deal as damage as possible to your target enemy. However, if you're caught out of position, you can use it to get away. The stealth and the MS steroid make it hard for your enemies to guess your position.

Mercy
This is your passive. It gives your auto-attacks a 10% damage boost if the target is under a Crowd Control effect (ex. slow, stun, blind, silence). Not too much of a big deal since you're relying on your spells to deal most of your damage. Think of it as a little boost.

Runes

greater mark of desolation Why armour penetration? Because, we're building pure AD. This makes your Q and W hit like a truck early game. This also helps if the enemy is stacking armor against you.

Talon does not have any armour at all in this build. He will need some resistances against the enemy AD champions.

Talon also doesn't have much magic resist against their nasty AP carries besides banshees veil! Thus this blademaster will need some magic resist! That is where this handy little seal comes in. This is an excellent choice for those annoying mages!

My, oh, my, cooldown reduction on talon? That's absurd! However, with Ionian Boots of Lucidity you'll have 15% CDR, along with Youmuu's Ghostblade you'll have another 15% CDR. Also with the runes greatersealofcelerity you get 8.1%. Altogether, you will have 38.1% CDR, that's amazing. You won't even need blue buff to get around a very low ulti cooldown.

Alternatives

Due to the recent patch, Talon is more mana costly. As such, you may opt to replace your armor seals with mana regeneration.

Masteries

I go 15/0/15 for the maximum damage and sustainability in lane. Fifteen in the offensive masteries for CDR on Talon's abilites, armour penetration, some attack damage, critical strike chance and a little buff on Exhaust. I go zero in the defensive masteries because I don't believe talon will risk attack damage for a little bit of defense. I go fifteen again in utility masteries because this helps him gain maximum experience, reduces time spent dead, gives you more HP and MP regeneration, movement speed and a little buff on Flash!

Items

Core

Situational Items

Converts your health into damage. Gives you armour for countering part of the enemy AD carry's damage. The critical strike is just a sexy bonus.
Good choice if you need more health to survive in teamfights. The slow component compliments your passive and helps you stick to people.
A good item for your last item slot. Gives a bunch of stats and Noxian Diplomacy activates the Sheen proc. This is also very nice if you don't want to buy a frozenmallet.
Gives you a little bit of Magic resist and AD, a mid game item. By the way, if you want to mimic Blitzcrank, this is the perfect item for you, haha! Also, helps with those nasty Karthus ults.
An alternative to Frozen Mallet. Synergies well with Atma's Impaler.
Gives a ton of armor and a bit of health. Pop its active in the middle of their AD carries so they get reduced AS(35% REDUCED!) or to slow them down to catch up to/run away from them.

In-game

You typically want to start off with a Doran's Blade. However, if you anticipate that you'll have trouble dealing with harassment, instead buy Boots of Speed and three health potions. On your first trip back, you want to start building your The Brutalizer or Avarice Blade for the extra gold per five. If you haven't gotten your boots yet, buy them first. Get a ward or a few health pots as you go back to lane.

Next you want to farm up for a B. F. Sword when you go back to the shop for the second time. However, if you have died or had to go back early, purchase your Ionian Boots of Lucidity. If you have trouble farming, you can also get an Avarice Blade.

Your inventory should look like this by the mid game mark:
+ Health Potions and sight ward

Resistances

Late game you want to finish your Youmuu's Ghostblade and get an Infinity Edge. At this point, everyone has finished their main core items and the game becomes more teamfight-oriented. If the enemy has any common sense, they'll try to kill you before you deal any damage to their team. You want to pick up some resistances to beef yourself up so you can survive the teamfights. Remember, you don't do any damage when you're dead.

If the enemy team has a lot for Crowd Control and magic damage, pick up a Banshee's Veil. If the enemy team is heavily AD-oriented, get an Atma's Impaler or a Randuin's Omen.
If the enemy team's damage is well-balanced, get a Frozen Mallet or Warmog's Armor.

Summoner Spells

Flash is a must need for Talon. This helps you escape in those tricky situations by flashing over a wall, or it can help you close the gap between an enemy. You basically have two blinks with Flash + Cutthroat.

Exhaust is very useful in 1vs1 fights. Combined with your Rake, you can stick to enemys. Remember that Exhaust also reduces the armor of your target if you took the improved Exhaust mastery.

Alternatives

This summoner spell has great synergy with Noxian Diplomacy. Use it to finish off fleeing enemy or to shut down that life-stealing son-of-a-*****.

Use it to catch up to enemys or to escape lost battles. It isn't the most optimal choice as you already have a massive MS boost with your ultimate.

Good choice if you happen to be in the Top lane. Teleport to a ward or minion for those early Dragons and brush ganks.

Team Work

Ganking

If you took mid lane, your job is to farm up as much as possible and gank Top or Bot. You typically want to go for a gank when your enemy laner goes back to buy and heal. When this happens, push your lane to their turret and go ganking. Talon doesn't have any hard Crowd Control he can use to pin someone down. Instead, you want to let your Top or Bot lane is to start the fight for you. Let your Alistar or Taric stun your target and unload everything. You're almost guaranteed a kill with your high burst damage and help from your AD carry. If you took top lane, your job is to farm up as much as possible and harass the other top and hopefully take a kill and the turret. You may also go to mid to gank when you have killed or forced the other top to go back.

Teamfights

During teamfights, your job as an assassin is to jump their main damage dealer and kill them before they can do any damage to your team. Talon plays similar to a Kassadin. You need to be patient and pick out the perfect time to jump into the fight. You're very fragile and you'll die in no time if you rush into the middle of the enemy team. Instead, wait for your Tank to initiate and go in after all the AOE spells have been blown. Ex. Summon: Tibbers
, Curse of the Sad Mummy, Idol of Durand etc. Flash out or pop your Shadow Assault if they start to focus you.