Laning as Talon: when to trade and when to wait
Wave management and trading windows for Talon, built from its real range, resource and ability costs.
What your range lets you do
At 125 attack range Talon has to walk into damage to deal it, so every trade begins with a decision about whether you can afford the walk.
Talon is mana-gated, which is the real limit on how often you can contest a wave early.
The costs that decide how often you can contest
Blade's End
Talon's spells Wound champions and large monsters, stacking up to 3 times. When Talon attacks a champion with 3 stacks of Wound, they bleed for heavy damage over time.
Noxian Diplomacy
Talon stabs the target unit. If they are within melee range, this attack deals critical damage. If they are outside melee range, Talon will leap at his target before stabbing them. Talon refunds some health and cooldown if this ability kills the target.
Rake
Talon sends out a volley of daggers that then return back to him, dealing physical damage every time it passes through an enemy. The returning blades deal bonus damage and slow units hit.
Assassin's Path
Talon vaults over any terrain or structure, up to a max distance. This ability has a low cooldown, but puts the used terrain on a long cooldown.
Shadow Assault
Talon disperses a ring of blades and becomes Invisible while gaining additional Move Speed. When Talon emerges from Invisibility, the blades converge on his location. Each time the blades move, Shadow Assault deals physical damage to enemies hit by at least one blade.
The wave decides the trade
Trades are won by the wave before they are won by the champion. Standing in the larger minion wave means taking chip damage for every second the exchange lasts.
Talon wants to delete one target and leave, which makes target selection matter more than the fight, so the good window is the one where the wave is not helping them and your key cooldown is up.
Recall timing
Backing on a shoved wave is free. Backing on a wave crashing into your own tower costs you the next two minutes. It is the most transferable habit in the game and the one that moves a smurf's MMR fastest.
Riot's own notes on playing Talon
These are the designers' words, not ours — the tips shipped in the client for Talon.
- You can use Assassin's Path to get behind the enemy and set up for Noxian Diplomacy's melee attack.
- Shadow Assault is a powerful escape tool, but can also be offensively used to assault a group.
- Remember to pick your target before the fight. Focusing all of Talon's abilities on one target can be very rewarding, but splitting them up between many may leave you helpless.
What the stat line does between level 1 and 18
| Stat | Level 1 | Level 18 |
|---|---|---|
| Health | 658 | 2511 |
| Attack damage | 68 | 68 |
| Armour | 30 | 109.9 |
| Magic resist | 36 | 70.9 |
Movement speed 335 and attack range 125 do not grow with levels — they are the two numbers that stay true all game.
Full Talon page — abilities, stats and every skin →