Hi, welcome to my Talon guide. I'm Yamikaze, a Challenger Talon player. My peak rank is around 30 on the NA server and I ended rank 100 Challenger in Season 8. I have 3M+ mastery on Talon. Hope this guide helps :)

Here is a (more updated) version in video form:









This is a MUST HAVE for Talon

I run this into almost every matchup. Talon Heal

I run this sometimes into Zoe Twisted Fate

Talon's abilities wound champions and epic monsters for a short duration, stacking up to three times. When Talon basic attacks a fully wounded target, they bleed for 60 - 160 (+2.0 per bonus attack damage) physical damage over 2 seconds.

This passive is a large percent of your damage in fights. It is very important to proc passive in a combo unless they are low enough that you are sure you don't need it. Whether you can proc your passive on a target in a fight will almost always make the difference between a kill or a 200 hp squishy that heals to full. The way this passive works is you need to hit an enemy champion or epic monster (baron/dragon) 3 times with abilities (your auto-attacks don't count) and then auto attack them (now, your abilities don't count). Check out the combo section for easy combos to proc your passive.



NOTE: Every time you hit an enemy champion, you refresh the duration of stacks on that enemy. If you extend a fight long enough at level 1, you can actually proc Blade's End Rake

Talon leaps to a target, dealing 60 / 85 / 110 / 135 / 160 +1.0 bonus attack damage. If cast within melee range, Talon does not leap but instead critically strikes his target for 150%. Whenever Noxian Diplomacy kills a unit, Talon restores 17 +3/lvl health and refunds 50% of its cooldown.

This ability has two parts. Its standard cast is from range, which is basically a leap. Keep in mind the range is pretty low (around the same range as a lot of adcs), meaning you will often have to flank to reach a target rather than run at them. Talon

Talon sends out a volley of daggers in a cone that return after a short delay. The initial hit deals 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 (+0.4 per bonus attack damage). The return hit deals 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+0.7 per bonus attack damage), and slows for 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60%.

This is your primary way to trade and farm in lane. Hitting both parts of Rake Rake Rake



Here's an example of W-Q and W-F-Q in lane to help clarify what I'm talking about (I'll embed this video again in the combo section):



Talon vaults over the nearest structure or terrain in a target direction. The vault's speed is affected by Talon's movement speed. Talon cannot vault over the same section of terrain for 160 / 135 / 110 / 85 / 60 seconds. .

Imo, this is the one skill that separates decent Talon players (~diam 4 to diam 2 players) and good Talon players (~Master+). This is one of the highest potential skills in the game, allowing pretty broken amounts of mobility. However, it also limits your 1v1 potential in lane as you only have 3 abilities (including ult) while most mid laners will have 4. In order to play Talon optimally, you need to abuse the roaming strengths of your e. Use it to walk around common ward spots, use it to catch out the enemy jungler as he's clearing camps, use it to sneak up on your laner when he returns from a roam or from lane, etc. Read the "Roaming with E" section to for gank paths.

Talon disperses a ring of blades outwards and gains stealth for up to 2.5 seconds while gaining 40% movement speed. When Talon emerges from stealth, the blades converge on his location. Each time a blade passes through an enemy, they take 80 / 120 / 160 (+0.8 per bonus attack damage) physical damage. Each enemy can only be damaged once at the start of the ability and once at the end.

Ability Sequence 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

I start Long sword + refill every game. If you play lane properly, you shouldn't need extra sustain as you can give a wave for an early recall on Talon pretty easily. Corrupting is viable if you're starting out and struggling in lane but I'd recommend switching as soon as you can.

Rush Tiamat for waveclear.

I try to rush these after Tiamat every game. Movespeed is Talon's best stat and you can take over the game quickly with these. Also it's hard for enemy laners to trade with you as you can outrun their rotation.

Go Dirk + Caulfields after Tiamat + Swiftness.

I rush Duskblade for damage asap. The passive gives your first auto an extra ~200 damage and the lethality will also allow you to negate enemy armor and enables lots of burst. Use the tooltip to check when you're on a ward to avoid wards when roaming.

I build this second every game. More movespeed for fast mid game rotations and 18 lethality is nice.

Edge of Night 3rd is optimal unless the enemy team is building armor. Then you want to build Black Cleaver if they're tanky (health + armor) and a Last Whisper item if you want to 1shot enemy squishies with armor / if you're behind in general.

Good 4th when ahead or even 3rd. I skip this entirely if I'm behind or the enemy team has no armor.

I build this 3rd or 4th when enemy team is building armor. Upgrade depending on enemy healing.

I build this when I have just enough gold for it and there's an important lategame teamfight coming up.

NOTE: In this section, AA stands for auto-attack and Q W E R are abilities. mQ is Melee Noxian Diplomacy rQ is ranged Noxian Diplomacy



ANOTHER NOTE: You can sneak an extra auto-attack after Q for more damage in many of these combos if necessary.



FURTHER NOTE: If this long list of combos confuses you, just focus on the first 4 until you get the hang of Talon.

Combo #1

> r > AA

Combo #2

r > AA > > AA

Combo #3

> > r > AA

Combo #4

> > AA > m > AA

Combo #5

> r > > AA

Combo #6

> r > > AA

Combo #7

> r > AA

Combo #8

> > AA > m > AA >

Combo #9

> > r > AA >

Level 1

Always start with a point in Rake Noxian Diplomacy

In melee matchups, walk up and aa-mQ-aa. This will trigger Electrocute

In Ranged matchups, be careful of their early poke and stay far back. Farm the first 3 melee minions all at once with the first part of Rake Rake

Level 2

The Level 2 Cheese: Hit an enemy champion with both parts of Rake Flash Noxian Diplomacy Rake

Play slightly more aggressive and don't be afraid to leap forward with ranged Noxian Diplomacy

Against melee matchups, autoattack - melee Noxian Diplomacy

Level 3

Take a point in Rake

Take a point in Assassin's Path

Start to play a bit less aggressive. Many mid laners such as Taliyah Talon

The Level 2 Cheese will still work but be a bit more wary.

Level 4

Take a second point in Rake

Take a point in Assassin's Path

Level 5

Take a third point in Rake

Watch your experience bar and try to hit level 6 before the enemy mid. If you are able to catch them out when you are level 6 and they aren't, you will almost always be able to kill them.

Level 6

Always take a point in Shadow Assault

Start looking for solo-kills in lane with full combos.

Look for roams with your Shadow Assault

Level 7

Take a fourth point in Rake

Assuming you have Serrated Dirk Serrated Dirk

Level 8

Take a second point in Noxian Diplomacy

Be wary of throwing Rake

Level 9

Take a fifth point in Rake

You can now consistantly 1-shot the enemy caster minions. This makes your roams much stronger as you can shove the wave faster.

Great waveclear with Rake REALLY hard to catch out due to Assassin's Path Shadow Assault Great at 1v1'ing squishies Great at matching waveclear against stronger splitpushers such as Jax Fiora Rake Rake NOTE: Wait until the stronger splitpusher shoves the wave out then throw a. Then, back off until yourcomes up and repeat. MOST importantly: Great at joining fights late!

If you are behind with an ap heavy team (e.g. you have a fed ap top/jungle), the enemy team will stack magic resist. As a result, you will be able to do a ton of damage and should continue to look for fights by calling for your team to group and getting a good flank in a teamfight.



On the other hand, if you have a full ad team composition, the enemy team will be stacking armor, making fights nearly impossible. Here, you will be forced into a Fiora Jax







On the other hand, if you have a full ad team composition, the enemy team will be stacking armor, making fights nearly impossible. Here, you will be forced into a If the enemy has a squishy that is just as far behind as you are, you should call for a group and flank to kill the squishy. Since the enemy squishy is also behind, they will not be able to survive your burst and you can remain relevant in teamfights.



On the other hand, if the enemy squishy is doing well or is really fed, you should once again pretend to be Nasus

Before I get into the specifics of Top Talon, I want to discuss my choice of Ignite Teleport



5 This lane ranges from easy to quite difficult depending on how well you can dodge. Make sure to stand behind minions to avoid her charm.



Generally, there are two types of Ahri



1. The first type of Ahri Orb of Deception



2. The second kind saves their abilities and just farms. Farm with her while looking for early kills by walking up and using w when she starts to auto a minion. When Ahri



8 Annie Talon



Generally Annie players will walk up and try to q-aa you as often as possible in lane. When she does this, throw a w and back off. She has to sidestep the second half of your w and then won't be in a position to harrass you. Early kills are usually quite easy due to how aggressive Annie players usually play. Watch out for her post-6 burst, she will easily kill you in one combo.



Overall, I think Annie Talon



Hexdrinker



5 Corki pokes hard but he's not too difficult to deal with. If you struggle against his poke, consider starting Doran's Shield



Hexdrinker

Match-up vod:







5 The Karthus lane is literally a dodge simulator. If you are good at dodging, you'll win. If not, you'll be at 10% hp in 3 Q's. Make sure to dodge his Q's or at least get hit with your minions. If you get hit by yourself, you take a load of damage. Plus, if he hits your minions, he pushes the wave and has to play safe due to his lack of escapes. Once he's 6, make sure your team knows so they can be aware of a potential Karthus ult.



Hexdrinker

Match-up vod vs Froggen:







3 Malzahar isn't too hard for Talon. He shoves hard but doesn't have any escapes, meaning he has to play relatively safe early. Make sure to hit him with w every 10 or 15 seconds so his Void Shift Malefic Visions



Hexdrinker

Match-up vod:





Thank you for reading.



Special thanks to Jovy for banners and coding.



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[nextcol width=50][/columns]This guide is forTalon. I don't play Conqueror anymore but it's better at hard carrying games under ~400LP Challenger.Before going into anything else, I'm going to list and explain all of Talon's possible combos.NOTE: Back off after the Rake versus ranged matchups. Versus melee, walk with them to make sure your second w hits.NOTE: Dodge after your R. Use this combo vs abilities you must dodge such as's snare,'s Stun, and's Charm.NOTE: After you Rake and Shadow Assault, walk up to them and AA - Noxian Diplomacy- AA for the Blade's End proc.NOTE: This combo is's fastest combo. However, it does take a lot of practice to master! Basically, you want to throw, use ranged, and thenMID-AIR, allowing your next auto-attack to proc. I recommend practicing this combo a few times in practice tool before you try it in a real game. Further, the player in the video below actually usesa bit too early, so make sure you try to use it whenis around 2/3 of the way to his target. If cast too early, the first part ofwon't always hit the enemy target.NOTE: So the way this combo works is you sacrifice the damage from the first part of your Shadow Assault for the 40% movespeed to catch a running target. Keep in mind that your damage will be weaker than the other combos. Make sure to cancel the autoattack that goes off automatically after your ranged Noxian Diplomacy ends for a quick Rake to proc Blade's End.NOTE: Use this combo ONLY when you don't have Rake available. The trick to this combo is that if you cast your ranged Noxian Diplomacy at max range, your Noxian Diplomacy and the second half of your Shadow Assault will close at the same time, enabling the auto after your Noxian Diplomacy to proc Blade's End.NOTE: Since you can cast your Shadow Assault in the middle of your Assassin's Path, use Shadow Assault before you land and then walk up to aa-mQ-aa and throw a Rake on the way out.NOTE: Dodge after you ult. Again, this is useful into targets that will attempt to hit you with a skillshot after you land. Further, if they aren't close to the wall or if they Flash away, you can use ranged Noxian Diplomacy to chase them down.Here's an excellent Talon combo video to showcase some of these combos:Generally, the start of midgame is marked by a bot tower falling. When this happens, be sure to trade lanes with your ADC and support. It is much easier forto farm a bot wave without towers than an ADC and support duo. As you do this, always look for opportunities to catch off a solo squishy and then force an objective. Further, if you see a fight about to begin, start walking towards your team. Remember to enter fights late if possible.is great at cleaning up fights. Try push your lead if possible during this time, asfalls off lategame. Don’t be afraid to play for picks instead of splitting. Sometimes, it’s better to walk into the enemy jungle with’s passive up and to look for a pick than to splitpush.When you play, usually you want to end games before lategame. However, if a game does last this long, you’re going to want to commit to either pressuring a side wave with a splitpush or grouping with your team. If the enemy squishies are difficult to kill, hard to catch out, or if you can 1v1 the enemy splitpusher, then you should splitpush. However, if the enemy squishies are easy to quickly burst down, can be caught alone, or you cannot 1v1 the enemy splitpusher, then you should group with the team and pressure/defend objectives (depending on whether you’re winning or losing at this point). Remember that your goal in a fight is to enter after the enemy team has used their peel or cc and quickly burst down an enemy target.This section will demonstrate proper roam paths on Talon with Assassin's Path. Green dots are common trinket spots for the ENEMY. Pink dots are commonspots for the ENEMY. White arrows indicate Talon's path.In this section, I will go over proper Talon MACRO play including "split pushing", slow pushing, playing from behindis a really strong splitpusher. This is because:The reason why I put "splitpushing" in quotations is thatcannot actually splitpush like you'd expect aorto splitpush. Rather, you want to be periodicly shoving bot lane then roaming, forcing the enemy team to constantly play on guard and in fear of your roams. This style of "splitpushing" is actually more efficient than the afk-farming most people will associate with the word.You want to start splitpushing onwhen either bot tower falls. If your ADC is competant, they will lane swap with you as it is easier for ADC + support to farm mid than a bot lane without turret. Further,can abuse the lack of a tower in bot lane and roam for longer periods of time, going bot only every few minutes to clear out a wave. If your ADC doesn't want to trade lanes, you can stay mid. In my opinion, it simply takes too long to explain the benefits of ADC and Support duos farming mid rather than bot after a tower falls.Generally speaking, this style of "splitpushing" is most efficient when you are even or ahead of the enemy team. However, if you are behind, scroll down and read the "playing from behind" section.Slow pushing is a tactic used by many very high elo players to set up waves in their benefit. Have you ever been dancing at Baron and wished that the gigantic enemy bot wave crashing at your tower could be crashing at the enemy tower instead? Well, with a bit of smart minion wave manipulation, you can! Allow me to explain.If your team has more minions, then your team's minions will slowly kill off the enemy minions at a faster rate than that your minions are being killed off. As a result, your wave will slowly grow in size as more minion waves continue to join. The longer you can hold a large wave in one place, the more minion waves will build up. As a result, you can easily set up a side wave to push into the enemy tower by simply clearing the ranged caster minions with oneand leaving the melee minions to be killed off by your larger wave. As the enemy melee minions hold your wave in place, more minions will join your wave and it will end up destroying the much weaker enemy wave, leading to a large minion wave crashing into the enemy tower.Now, you might be asking, "why do I want to give the enemy a large wave?" Well, the answer is simple. SOMEONE on the enemy team has to clear this wave. If you are able to time a minion wave so that it will slowly build up and crash into the enemy bot tower while both teams are dancing at baron, the enemy team will be forced to either send someone to defend (and make the proceeding fight a 5v4) or to give up the turret as it falls to your minion wave. The reason whyis the best champion to do this is due to the ease he is able to clear ranged caster minions with oneand his high out of combat mobility, allowing him to quickly regroup with his team after he sets up the slow push.Ok, you got ganked early or messed up the lane. Now you're staring at your 0-4 score wondering what you can do next. Well, due to's feast-or-famine playstyle, it is often very hard to even do anything when you are behind. The most important factor when playing from behind is team composition and the state of the game.You will want to start every teamfight flanking both teams. A flank behind the enemy team is preferable but you just have to make sure the enemy front line isn't between you and the enemy squishies. Once the fight begins, watch and wait for the enemy frontline to use their CC (like'sor's). Once this has been used, watch for backline CC being used by anyone who can peel for the enemy squishy (usually a support, such as's. Although you can go in before the backline CC is used, it will be harder to kill your target. However, never go in before the frontline CC is used, as they will just use that CC on you and you will instantly die.Here's a hypothetical situation: You've made it past all the enemy CC. Now you can use your full combo to delete one squishy from the teamfight. Do you kill the 10-3-5 Ryze, the 2-3-8 Lucian, or the 0-1-10 Janna? Well, even I couldn't tell you which one to go for. Your mistake was not picking a target before the start of the fight.Before a fight starts, you want to first consider which enemies you can even 1-shot. This list will usually include the enemy mid, bot, and support. From this list, you want to find the biggest threat to your team. This is usually the enemy that does the most damage but could also include thethat keeps the whole team alive and makes it impossible for you to 1-shot the enemy carries.Now, you've narrowed down your list of targets to 1 or 2 (in our hypothetical situation, this would be Ryze and Lucian). First, check for items like, or. This is incredibly important as a well-timed stopwatch or hourglass often decides a fight. If your target has one of these items, reconsider whether it's worth burning all your cooldowns to pop either the GA passive or force the hourglass. So, let's assume Ryze has a completed hourglass. If you judge that forcing the 10-3-5 Ryze to stasis for 2.5 seconds is worth more than a kill on the 2-3-8 Lucian, then go for Ryze. However, if you judge that killing Lucian then going for Ryze as a team is the better option, go for Lucian.Another factor high elo players consider are summoner spell cooldowns. This can be a bit overwhelming if you're newer to the game, but timing summoner spells are incredibly important once you get to around Diamond 1 or above. It's actually pretty simple. To do this, make sure to have your chat timestamps enabled. For example, if the enemy Syndra flashes, click on the flash on the scoreboard (lets say, hypothetically, she flashes at 13:30). Then, when you're walking to lane or backing, simply add 5 minutes to the flash timestamp. Afterwards, type something like "mid f 1830," with 1830 meaning 18:30. You can do the same with heal (4 minute cd), barrer (3 minute cd), teleport (5 minute cd), ignite (3.5 minute cd), and etc. Remember thatand CDR boots reduce summoner spell cooldowns.Although most people think of Talon as a mid laner, he's also very strong top lane (whether he's stronger top or mid, well, that'll depend on who you ask!). Learning how to play top is really good if you plan on playing Talon as your main (or even one-tricking him), as you will need to queue for two roles in ranked. Be warned, top talon has a very different playstyle from mid and won't be an easy transition if you're only familiar with mid. There are many high elo Talons that play almost only top simply because of how different the two roles are (and it's much easier to queue for top than mid in the highest elos).Another (arguably more important) argument to playing Talon Top over Mid is that the enemy top laner will stack armor regardless of whether you're mid or top. However, if you're top instead of mid, the enemy mid laner won't rush. Thus, you will have an extra 5 or 10 minutes where you can 1-shot the enemy mid laner in fights. This delays Talon's inevitable fall-off period. Although I agree with this argument (Talon top was indeed stronger than mid in season 7), Season 8 runes changed some things. Top lane tanks are now tankier early, making them harder to abuse. On the other hand, AP Mid laners didn't get extra armor, making them much easier to abuse. Further,was introduced, making your ganks mid (from top) much harder to pull off.Here's an example game if you're not convinced:The two major differences in laning top compared to mid are the bruiser matchups and a greater emphasis on lane control. Most top matchups are versus melee bruisers, so it will be much easier to trade early in lane as they will have trouble dodging the second part of your w. Thus, you will want to be looking for early cheesy kills with ignite (similar to Mid Talon).Versus ranged top laners such asor, you will want to lane like you would lane versus a ranged mid mage. Play a bit safer and don't take too much harass when you go for cs or w poke.However, your strong early trades can put you in a false sense of security. By using W to harass and secure a passive proc versus melee bruisers (or even ranged), you will also push the wave towards the enemy laner. This is a huge problem as you're running ignite. One good gank by the enemy jungler and your lane, and likely the game, is over. With no way to quickly TP back to lane, you're going to be down 1.5 to 2 levels, 20+ cs, and a kill if you die. Since it's nearly impossible to come back from such a disadvantage (especially as an ad assassin vs. tanky, armor stacking bruisers), you must make sure never to die early on Talon top. This actually isn't that hard. Simply sit at your tower and wait for the enemy laner to start autoing the first wave before showing up, causing the lane to start pushing towards you. Then, avoid using W the first wave or two to get the wave set up on your side of the lane. Once the lane is set up, you can abuse your early game advantage with no chance of a gank by simply using w as they walk up to a minion, wait until the blades are about to be pulled back, and ranged q + aa. Plus, the enemy laner will struggle going for cs and trading back due to the threat of your jungler's gank.After your power spike (once the enemy laner has backed), you will either be up a kill, even, or (hopefully not) down a kill. If you're up a kill, shove the lane and back yourself. If you're even, shove the lane if you can get your minion wave to the enemy turret before the next enemy minion wave shows up and stops your wave. If you're down a kill, well... you're in trouble.Now that you're in base, take a look at the state of the minion wave. If it's pushing towards you (the enemy wave is bigger), simply walk to lane. If it's even or pushing towards the enemy (the enemy wave is smaller), you can gank mid or bot. Look for a gank mid if the enemy laner hasn't arrived to lane as you're leaving base. This will usually be done with these two paths:NOTE: Yellow dot is a common trinket spot, Red dot is a common control ward spot. Red, Blue, and Green boxes correspond to where the enemy laner is, and arrows indicate path to gank.Now, if the lane is pushed into the enemy side or neutral AND the enemy laner backed around the exact same time as you, then you have time to roam bot. Remember that roaming bot is a huge risk and will put you very far behind if it fails. Thus, make sure NEVER to die when you gank bot. If your bot gank succeeds and either forces the enemy laners to back or you kill them, consider going for bot turret. The three of you (you, bot, and support) will certainly get first tower before your top turret falls. Use these gank paths:After first turret falls, lane swap as you would if you were mid (ask to swap with your bot lane, except they go top for turret instead of mid) and play the rest of the match like mid lane Talon.In this section, I will go over Talon matchups in both mid and top. Further, I will rate the difficulty of the matchup from 1 to 10. Some matchups will have varying difficulty, depending on your ability to dodge or the skill level of the enemy player. I've been uploading matchup vods to youtube and will embed them in this section.Obligatory Flag Counters (From 1-6-18):