Talon’s passive is the “Blade Spike”, which ensures that his abilities inflict wounds on enemy champions and large monsters for 6 seconds, which can be increased up to 3 times. When Talon attacks a champion with 3 wounds, the champion suffers a bleed that deals heavy damage over time. This damage over time is increased by 20% against jungle monsters. Since both the base damage of this passive and its scaling with additional attack damage are very high, triggering it is an essential part of Talon’s burst combo.

At level 1, you start with Talon’s W, the “Blade Volley”. When used, Talon hurls a series of blades that return to him afterwards. Each time one of the blades penetrates an opponent, they take physical damage. The returning blades deal additional damage and slow hit units for 1 second. The damage of this ability is increased by 5% against jungle monsters. The W is your ability to clear minion waves and is also important for your burst combo, as it packs 2 stacks of your passives on the enemy if you hit both instances. You therefore maximize them first.

At level 2 you skill Talon’s Q, the “Noxian Diplomacy”. When activated, Talon stabs the target unit, which is an autoattack reset. If the target is in melee range, the attack deals critical damage. This damage can be further increased by critical hit damage. However, if Talon’s target is out of melee range, he jumps to it before striking. Talon also regains some health and 50% of the cooldown when the Q kills a target. So you can use the Q either as a gapcloser or for additional burst and it also causes a stack for your passives. Especially if you trigger the passive with the Melee Q, you can deal a lot of damage at once. To further increase the damage and reduce the cooldown, maximize the Q second.

At level 3, you complete Talon’s basic abilities with his signature move, the “Way of the Assassin”. Your E allows you to jump over terrain and buildings (provided the distance is not too great). The ability itself has no cooldown, but each terrain has a fairly high cooldown, so you can’t use a wall twice in one fight. This means you have to plan ahead with Talon as to which wall you want to jump over for your Engage and which you want to save for your escape. Since the E deals no damage and additional ability points only reduce the cooldown of the terrain, it is maximized last.

Talon’s ultimate ability, “Shadow Attack”, can be leveled at levels 6, 11 and 16. When activated, Talon hurls a ring of blades, becomes invisible for 2.5 seconds and gains additional movement speed. When Talon becomes visible again, the blades meet at his position. Whenever the blades move, Shadow Attack deals physical damage to enemies hit by at least one blade. If Talon ends invisibility early with an autoattack or a Q, the blades will fly to the target hit instead. Talon can only be revealed during invisibility by towers or by abilities that give absolute vision. You can therefore use the ult in a variety of ways in battles, both for surprise engages and for maximum burst or to escape.

Combo [W->Q->AA->R->AA]: this is Talon’s classic combo to burst an opponent’s carry. First throw your W at your target, then jump after it with your Q and autoattack once before activating your ult. End the combo with another autoattack so that your second ult instance follows the target.

Combo [W->AA->Q->R->AA]: This is Talon’s combo for maximum damage, but it is usually only used if the target has been CC’d or is facechecking you. Here you also start with the W, which is immediately followed by an autoattack. You reset this with your Q and then immediately activate your ultimate, followed by another autoattack.