Forum talk:Neekerivittu/@comment-121.54.29.9-20121125030449/@comment-218.186.15.10-20121126083826

I'd say that Zed has more potential damage mid-late game, but Talon has more guaranteed damage.

Zed is deadly for the sole reason of his ult - it's basically a 50% damage amplification for 3 seconds, which is insanely strong once you have enough AD. However, his reliance on hitting multiple Qs and AAs means that if soneone Zhonyas/stuns/slows you, you've basically wasted half your theoretical damage you could have done.

Talon is different. He relies on the high damage on his nukes; he can basically unload all his abilities with proper smart-casting and deal almost all of his potential damage in 1 shot. It's hard to counter Talon's initial burst on you - once he blinks and silences you, he can drop all his skills during that 1s silence before you can retaliate. However, there comes a point in the game whereby he falls off in terms of damage due to how AD abilities scale. Talon can AA, but he has no damage amplification on his AA except for the 15% on Cutthroat for 3s, which isn't a lot when you think about it.

Basically, Talon is a safer pick, as most of his damage is frontloaded into that initial E-R-W-AA-Q combo. Zed has more potential damage if he's allowed to beat down on his enemy for the 3s when his ult is active. Of course, whether the enemy allows you to do just that is a different situation entirely, but then that's the risk you take with Zed.