Let's Talk Talon

9/5/14 Update: Check out the "Talon, then and now" Quote page!

In the latest rendition of the solo queue tier list, I've placed Talon as god tier. Naturally, I've gotten my share of questioning stares, as it seems Talon isn't particularly loved by the League community...

Exhibit 1: Haters

"Frankly He Blows"

What? LOL...if I was one of those professional YouTube stars this would be where I embed a video stringing together 5 Talon 1v5 pentakills together with some sick action music. But since I'm not, here are some more pictures and words.

Exhibit 2: Win Rates

If you look at anywhere between Bronze and Platinum, you'll notice that Talon sadly enough doesn't appear in the top champions...however, if you take a peek at diamond and...peekaboo! Check out who makes his way to the top.

Seems to me that there's a level of knowledge that needs to be high enough to use him correctly, but also highly rewards people that learn it.

Talon Pros and Cons

Pros

• High AOE damage; 
• Great synergy with popular champions that shred armor like Jarvan, Taric, and Wukong (especially if Talon builds black cleaver); 
• Strong poke;
• INSANE waveclear;
• Great roaming potential

Cons

• Squishy champion;
• No true escapes;
• Can be countered by Zhonyas.

Why Talon is Good

Talon is a champion touted as offering "no counterplay". This means that it's kill or be killed once he silences you. If he can burst you down, then naturally, you instantly die. As a result of this silence, he's an excellent anti-mage and counters a lot of common champions mid like Lux, Nidalee, and Kassadin. 

However, a lot of people mistakenly think that this means that they can go head-to-head with these champions at any point in the game, which simply isn't true. In order to beat them, it requires strong knowledge of when to poke and when to go all in with Talon.

He's better when his food is seen more often on the rift. Talon's a prime example of a "cycle" champion. Since most assassins have been nerfed, this means that poke heavy, skillshot oriented squishy mages are back on the field...Talon's ultimate prey. While he doesn't do as well against tanky champions, his ability to burst down an enemy's back line is still one of the best in the game.

As long as he has enough damage to one shot his primary targets with his combo, he's good. If he doesn't, he's bad. Long story short, with the new masteries and the current set of popular champions (aka targets), he does.

How to Play Talon

1. Talon is an assassin with no true escapes. 

Compare this with champions like Zed, Fizz, Kassadin, and even Katarina, who have the ability to jump in and out of a battle.

This means he's much more unforgiving in a failed all-in.

As a result, a lot of summoners confuse lack of knowledge with playing a bad champ (and also explains his win rate at higher rankings versus average rankings). For example, you almost never want to engage on a squishy against an Amumu or near a Leona before they use a few of their CCs (and especially their ultimates). Although Talon can instantly kill a lot of squishies, a lot of squishies can also instantly kill Talon, especially if their butch friend is holding him down.

Just remember you need to play like a sneaky assassin, not like some broken fish who apparently can dodge bullets and ancient magic using a metal stick.

2. Talon is a champion that scales VERY nicely with armor penetration, and doesn't lose anything by building it early. 

• Your first two "damage" items should be Black Cleaver and Last Whisper; 
• This prevents you from snowballing, then doing 0 damage when their entire team builds armor and instagimps you using their base damage.
• He should still aiming for squishies, not tanks, despite building so much armor shred. He's not an AD carry, and excels at hitting the back line.

3. Talon is a roamer with a super lower cooldown on his ultimate and insanely good waveclear

Check out this win rate with boots of mobility. You'll almost always want to roam bot. Top is where the bruisers will wreck your day, sometimes even 2v1. On the other hand, if you go bot, you can easily chunk 2/3 of both of their health bars by yourself, and naturally 2 kills and dragon is better than being shown on reddit as part of of a video titled

"SICK RIVEN 1v2 OUTPLAY"

How to Counter Talon

Don't die (heh). Basically, once he gets his armor penetration items, your squishies will be easy targets if your team is low on CC. However, if your team is high on CC, make sure someone's carrying a pink ward or sweeper (I prefer pink ward) so that you can blast him down when he engages, although good Talons will avoid any major AOE CCs, so you'll have to watch specifically for him.

Always keep your river warded as well, since Talon's favorite hobby is roaming and insta-gimping. Don't rely on your mid-laner to call MIAs, since his wave clear is so insane that he can MIA every 3 seconds and be down in the river in 6 seconds.

On squishy AP mid laners be sure to get Zhonyas Hourglass, which will give you enough time to prevent his second part of his ultimate from hitting you, and also give some much needed armor. Seeker's armguard is also excellent for surviving early.

Unfortunately as most of you will probably find out, if he's already fed that's not going to help you since he can still easily burst down a squishy during the duration of his one second silence. He can also simply roam bottom and take down the champions without the extra armor.

Conclusions

While Talon might not be the insane faceroll champion he was during the League of Cleavers, he's definitely one of the stronger champions on the field of justice right now. Instead of asking for buffs, you should be asking yourself...why am I not spamming Talon games???

What are your thoughts on Talon? Comment below!

Data and Statistics from LoLking.net