Play Video /league-of-legends/champion/talon-82

Hello and welcome to my Talon guide! This is now my second MOBAfire guide, and In it I will show you what I definitaly think is the most effective way to build and play Talon for players experienced and new, ranked or normal. Talon is fun to play and fairly easy to learn, although he takes some practice to master. Hopefully this guide will start you on your way to mastering Talon!

• HUGE burst damage
• Good escapes/gap closing
• Good CC
• Combos extremely well
• Fun to play

• Somewhat squishy
• Damage is entirely Physical and can be countered by armour
• Has some trouble taking down extremely tanky enemies

Greater Mark of Desolation x 9
Greater Seal of Armor x 9
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist x 9
Greater Quintessence of Desolation x 3

These are the standard AD runes, with the armour penetration over flat AD marks and quintessences. I just like this because the armour pen. will grant you nearly true damage to targets in the very early game, also it helps work against high-armour tanks.

For this I take the standard 21 AD masteries in the offense tree, but then I also spend an extra four points on Sorcery for some welcome cooldown reduction, as Talon undeniably has long cooldowns on everything except his ultimate, which is short compared to most ultimates. I ignore the defense tree because for Talon's playstyle it would be a waste, and then I take the Expanded Mind and Meditation masteries in the utility tree because Talon is very mana-hungry in the early game. I put one point in Summoner's Insight also in the utility tree just to unlock the next tier.

Your three main must-have items. The Infinity Edge and Bloodthirster will give you some REALLY nice damage, along with the bonus critical strike chance/crit damage and lifesteal, all very good for Talon. The Trinity Force is also a very strong item. Its the passives that make this item great, the Sheen works extremely well with your Noxian Diplomacy AND cutthroat abilities, while the slow chance from Phage is very good for triggering your passive mercy The attribute benefits are also good for Talon, the AP isn't needed at all really, but the mana from Sheen helps a lot, and the critical strike chance and attack/movement speed from Zeal is perfect for Talon. And finally you get a bit of attack damage and some very welcome health from the Phage, this item seems to have been made for Talon, and is an absolute MUST BUY, even more so than the other two core items.


I definitaly like to take the Ionian Boots of Lucidity, because the cooldown reduction is great, and having an ability recharge a few seconds earlier than normal can save your life in a fight situation. These are what I would recommend, but Mercury's Treads are also a very viable option, especially if you plan on going mid and shutting down an AP carry, or if your against an AP heavy team with tons of CC.

For your final items, I would highly recommend two more Bloodthirsters, as then your damage will be insanely high, especially if you work up the stacks on all of them. There are some alternatives to this discussed in the next chapter of the guide; so read on for more.

- Not my first choice for an item, but if your against a team that has more than one person stacking a significant amount of armor, then switch your second Bloodthirster out for this, as it will greatly improve your damage against those tanks.

- If you want to be slightly tankier in a situation where your not very fed and are being killed too easily, then trade this for either your Trinity Force or your third Bloodthirster

- Again, if you feel you are too squishy and just being killed too fast, then replace whatever your willing to sacrifice with this item. A large amount of armor and a bit of magic resistance also will greatly improve your defense against both AP and AD champions; along with the potentially lifesaving passive.

mercy (Passive) Talon deals 10% bonus damage to any target that is slowed, stunned, immobolized, or suppressed.

- A really nice passive, especially when you get Frozen Mallet and you get to take full advantage of it, 10% bonus damage is fairly significant through all stages of the game.

Hotkey: Q Talon's next basic attack deals an additonal physical damage. If the target is a champion, they will bleed, taking additional physical damage over a period of time and revealing their location for the duration.

- This is your main melee ability, and will give you some SERIOUS damage in a 1v1 situation. It is best used right after an auto attack, as it will instantly activate, dealing two attacks in the time of one.

Hotkey: W Talon Sends out a volley of daggers that then return back to him, dealing physical damage each time it passes through an enemy. Additionally the enemy is slowed for a short duration.

- An incredibly useful ability for an assassin like Talon, deals some very nice damage while also slowing your enemy, which will allow you to catch up or escape depending on the situation, it is also a very useful way to trigger your mercy passive. Make sure to always hit your target with the blades on the way out and back, as this will greatly increase your damage.
cutthroat Hotkey: E Talon instantly appears behind his target, silencing them and amplifying his damage against that target.

- This ability is a large part of all of your possible combos, and is bread and butter with your ultimate Shadow Assault, as you can activate this right after you go into stealth with your ultimate, which will teleport you to the enemy and make the blades around you focus specifically on that target. One of Talon's coolest and most devastating tricks.

(Ultimate) Hotkey: R Talon disperses a ring of blades and becomes invisible while gaining additional movement speed. When Talon emerges from invisibility, the blades converge on his location. Every time a blade passes through an enemy, they receive physical damage.

- A really cool ultimate, and best of all, it has a very short cooldown compared to almost all other ultimates. It is great for escaping, chasing, and can deal very large damage, there are some neat tricks you can pull off when paired with your cutthroat blinking ability.


A basic early game combo, blink to them with your E, then Q them for some nice damage, then W for more damage and the slow as they try to run.

Same idea here, but if your chasing down a retreating low-health enemy, your going to want to start by slowing them, allowing you to catch up and finish them.

This combo is your bread and butter, it is your highest damaging and most devastating combo, once your a ways into your build, it should take down squishy targets in one go no problem. This is what you want to use as much as possible, as it will almost guarantee you a kill against the right target.

The skill sequence I use for Talon goes outside the box a little, as it doesn't involve maxing one skill right away, then another after, and one last. Although maxing Rake right away by level 9 is very common, and although it does work to some extent, I STRONGLY think that Talon is much more effective if you alternate in a W-Q-W-Q pattern, with one point in cutthroat at level 3, and stopping to unlock and upgrade your ultimate at levels 6,11, and 16.

The reason I do this is so that you get a ton of damage from both your Noxian Diplomacy and Rake, as opposed to relying almost completely on Rake for damage. And the reason I take one point in cutthroat and then max it last is because it is almost totally for the teleport behind an enemy, and upgrading it doesn't benefit the damage increase a whole lot.

I take these two spells with just about every single champion I play, in my opinion the two best spells in the game BY FAR. Flash is VERY helpful for getting over walls, escaping, and chasing, while Ignite can finish off enemies for otherwise unobtainable kills.

Other somewhat viable options:

Heal is used by a lot of low leveled people, but is also favoured by some more experienced people also, I used to use it until I hit about summoner level 13 and realized that Flash is just better. But if you really like it, then go right ahead as it is okay for Talon.

Some people like this over Flash, but I personally prefer Flash as it can get you over terrain as oppossed to just making you move faster. Its good for chasing people down, but I would take Flash instead for sure.

Only MAYBE take this if your going mid, or if you plan on doing a lot of backdooring. I never use this, but it is pretty good and can help you turn the tide in team fights and save turrets, its good to have one person on your team at least with a Teleport, but it really doesn't have to be you.

Overall, I would say that Talon is the best assassin in the game next to Shaco and maybe Akali, but he is quite entertaining to play, has some crazy burst damage, and is a squishy carry's nightmare. He may take a bit of practice to fully master, but he is pretty easy to just pick up and play. Experiment lots with the different variations of the Shadow Assault + cutthroat combo to discover some neat tricks Talon is capable of pulling off. Good luck out there, and if this guide helped you out, don't be afraid to +1 or comment a quick thanks. All suggestions are welcome, as is some constructive criticism. Thank you for reading my Talon guide!