Good morning summoners!

This here be my third guide on Mobafire, and it's time for something a little different.

Talon is my favourite champion that Riot have released in a long time, and i have been experimenting with many different ways to play him.

Below details my favourite way of playing Talon, as a carry/anti-carry!

Ok so the reason this is a strange concept is because a carry is supposed to put out lots of damage late game, whereas an anti-carry is supposed to shut down the opposing teams carry so they cannot be useful late game.

Talon fits bot these roles perfectly, at least with this build.

Let's be clear on one thing:

Talon is an assassin.

Yes, I got that from the dictionary.

In order to play Talon well you have to set up your kills. Think like an assassin. Catch people off guard. No matter how many guides you read you won't be able to play Talon until you can think like him. Saying that, I hope that I can offer some advice in how to play him properly.

Playing a lot of PVP games in the form of DotA, LoL, WoW and various other games, I have come to realise that no matter what you play, survivability is of utmost importance. There is no point in putting out 20 kills in a game if you also have 20 deaths, cause then you are being as useful as you are being a hindrance to your team. Survivability is one of the issues that a lot of Talon guides have a problem with. Sure, you can crit for 1000 damage and shut down their weakest member, but as soon as you get caught in the open or without Shadow Assault then you become a prime target and an easy kill for the enemy. Dealing with fighters such as Jax or Olaf also becomes a big problem, as they generally have a lot of survivability and can survive most guide's burst damage. Tryndamere is a pain in the *** for this, cause as soon as he activates his Endless Rage, he is at his strongest, and can shut you down in a few hits.

And thus, the inspiration for this guide was born.

Greater Mark of Desolation - These marks give you more damage on your auto-attacks early game and a bit more damage to your abilities late game. If you don't understand how Armor Penetration works, I suggest you familiarise yourself on the LoL Wiki

Greater Seal of Evasion - Think like an assassin! Dodging attacks is good, as it effectively means you take 9% [(0.75% x 9) + 2%] less damage. Also, with Nimbleness , if you dodge an attack while running away from a fight, you can get away quicker.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist - Survivability! Magic resist is great, and Talon's base MR isn't very high. If you feel that you can survive very well towards end game, the other option is ...

Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction - Cooldown reduction is quite lacking in this build, as ideally you should just use a full combo to kill someone outright. However, having a 25 second cooldown on Shadow Assault is nice, so these are an option.

Greater Quintessence of Desolation - MOAR ARMOR PEN. Yeah, see above for why you should take these. The other option is...

Greater Quintessence of Gold - For those games where you don't have a great early game in the form of kills or minion farming, these can help keep you in the game. Free gold is never a bad thing.

0/21/9 is possibly the only masteries I would consider with Talon, and I'll tell you why.

Recently I've come to realise that masteries make VERY little difference to the end game.
With the exception of the percentage based masteries such as Presence of the Master , Havoc and Tenacity , masteries tend to be designed to give you an advantage early game.

21/0/9 or 21/9/0 would only be worth it if Talon crit more early game or didn't have the Greater Mark of Desolation

Defensive masteries give a lot more survivability early AND late game. extra health, less damage taken from both minions and enemy champions, extra dodge, armor and MR make this the ideal tree for the proper assassin.

Early game:

Brawler's Gloves Health Potion Mana PotionThe main reason that I start out with these is for the simple fact that it builds into Avarice Blade, and you want to get that extra gp5 early, to get the most benefit out of it. It can be nice when you get a random crit early game (even nicer when it's on an enemy champion) but the main reason is that it saves you money in the long run.

Avarice Blade - on your first trip back (Stay in lane for as long as humanly possible without dying) you want to be picking up this for the extra gp5, along with...

Boots - extra movement helps early game, and you don't really need to upgrade your boots for a while considering you will be jumping to people with Cutthroat, and escaping with Shadow Assault

Phage - this is a great "proper" starting item. extra health and damage, plus it has the potential to proc a slowing effect on the enemy. 1) this means they can't escape and 2) this slowing effect activates Talon's passive, Mercy ! an extra 10% damage? yes please.

Boots of Swiftness - So by now it should be time for you to start roaming the map picking off unsuspecting laning champions, helping your jungler gank. These help a great deal with that. They are also great for closing the gap so that you can use Cutthroat

Frozen Mallet - Getting this early game means that when you jump on an enemy, you automatically do 10% more damage with your autoattacks, which is great for finishing off those people you have bursted down but just have a tiny bit of health remaining. Also a bigger chunk of health is always nice =]

Infinity Edge - not much to say about this item to be honest. huge ammounts of damage, crit and crit damage. Now you can properly go 1v1 with most champions (If you play well!)

Warmog's Armor - LOLWHUT?! yeah, warmogs on Talon may SOUND like a stupid idea, but it works REALLY well. it gives you more time to run away if you get caught off guard, lets you endure a large ammount of damage, and means you wont get focused down so easily. With this and Frozen Mallet you end up at about 4k hp, which is silly for an assassin. Especially because....

Atma's Impaler - More survivability, more crit and more damage makes this a great item for this Talon build. Tied in with Warmog's gives you a ton more damage. With this I generally end up on about 350 damage end game. Doesn't sound like much, but you still crit for 1100 with Noxian Diplomacy

Youmuu's Ghostblade - Upgrading Avarice Blade last but not least gives you more damage, CDR, a situational item for when you need to chase/fight a fighter/run away, more armor pen and more crit. It's a great finishing item.

Yes I said rotation!

Now, if you want to assassinate someone, you need to make sure that you can escape BEFORE you engage. The reason for this is that you generally want to be saving Shadow Assault for escaping, not engaging.

However, in the situations where you know you are safe and you can assassinate an enemy, there is a rotation to Talon's attacks.

Firstly, you need to activate Noxian Diplomacy. The reason is that it works off Talon's next attack, rather than instantly. I should mention at this point that you shouldn't be moving towards your opponent at this point, because you need to take them completely off guard. Running towards your target as an assassin kind of lets them know you're coming...

The next 3 steps need to be pulled off in VERY quick succession. I should mention at this point that I use smart-casting as my normal qwer.

Pop Shadow Assault and then IMMEDIATELY use Cutthroat, following up with Rake.

After playing around with Shadow Assault you come to realise that it cancels whenever Talon makes ANY action apart from moving. Considering the fact that Cutthroat places you directly behind the enemy, all the blades from Shadow Assault should pass right through them and back to you. You should NOT use this combo if the enemy is running away from you, as then the blades will come back to you and NOT pass through them.

Anyway, once you have jumped to the enemy, autoattack so that your Noxian Diplomacy is used, and then follow up with Rake to make sure that they cannot escape.

Kind of self explanatory.

Flash helps you chase or escape awkward situations

Ignite Helps you secure kills.

Simple :p

So there's a new way of playing Talon!

I just wanted to get all my information down on page and see what you guys thought of the item choices/ masteries before I go and make the guide all pretty.

So yes, it is a bit of a text wall for now, but let me know if you think I should improve it and I'll keep updating it =]