Talon/Strategy

Tips

 * Playing As
 * You can use to get behind the enemy and set up for  melee attack
 * 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 abilities on one target can be very rewarding, but splitting them up between many may leave you helpless.


 * Playing Against
 * attacks are all physical damage. Build armor early to counter his burst damage.
 * is heavily reliant on to escape a fight. When it is down he's significantly more vulnerable.
 * has unrivaled roaming ability. Make sure to keep track of his position or force him to stay in lane by pushing aggressively

Tricks

 * Ability Usage
 * is an AD caster assassin who specializes in early game burst and roaming. Against most opponents, his high damage can overwhelm them should he be able to combo his skills, while his gives him almost unlimited mobility in the jungle, allowing him to reposition himself with ease
 * Because of his high AD ratios, early game power and map pressure, can easily snowball out of control if left unchecked.
 * is passive: upon hitting an enemy champion or epic monster 3 times with any of your abilities, your next basic attack causes a full-stacked enemy to bleed for 2 seconds
 * The skill's base damage and high ratio makes it a tremendous source of damage in your kit, allowing you to win most trades should you be able to proc it.
 * cannot be stacked on the same enemy as long as he's bleeding. Once the bleed is over, you can immediately restart to stack it again.
 * Hitting an enemy with your basic attacks while he has at least 1 or 2 stacks of will reset the stacks' duration to 6 seconds. By starting with, one can proc the passive as soon as level 1 by resetting the timer long enough for your  to be available again.
 * is most reliable skill. Depending on the distance between him and the target, it can either be a targeted dash or a high-damaging stab.
 * If kills an enemy it refunds half of its cooldown while also healing, making it good for farming and sustaining in lane.
 * resets autoattack timer, so use this ability after autoattacking to gain 2 hits in succession.
 * is one of your best tools in the lane, allowing to last-hit and harass from a decent range.
 * deals more damage and applies its slow with its return. Using it at close range can ensure to get both hits on the enemy champion.
 * Be sure not to overuse this ability at earlier levels to avoid running out of mana.
 * usual combo is to either lead with or, follow with the other skill and autoattacking to proc . Using  dash first allows to ensure  return to hit, while in the other way you can use  slow to get close to the opponent and follow with the  stab. However, do remember that the second combo is more difficult to perform because of  unreliability.
 * When you use your second combo, try not to use beforehand as it resets your autoattack timer. This means you can activate it right as a basic attack hits to get a second hit nearly instantly and substantially increase your burst.
 * can easily score a kill as soon as level 2 thanks to his combo burst. It is highly advisable to look for early opportunities, as they may give you a strong lead
 * is most important skill. When near any structure or wall, you can jump to its other side. Because of its very low cooldown, it gives  almost unrivaled mobility while in the jungle
 * The ability puts the piece of terrain used on cooldown. Because of its high times in the early-mid game, it is important to use the ability sparingly
 * The jump is considered a dash, which means it can be interrupted by other champions' abilities like
 * can be used to cross player-created terrain as well, such as those made by or
 * The terrain cooldown applies to these kind of structures as well. If you jumped over wall and the cooldown hasn't expired yet, you won't be able to cross it again
 * Being a dash, cannot be used to cross structures that do not allow champions to dash over, such as
 * stealth and damage allow it to be used both defensively or offensively. It can be used as either a tool for chasing an escaping champion, escaping a gank, improving your burst or ensuring stacks on your targets.
 * It is difficult to utilize the movement speed of  to its fullest due to the small range of the radius, however. It is more likely the movement speed will be helpful to quickly get in range of a target to use  on than simply running around should you wish to hit an enemy with  twice.
 * volley's return can converge on the first enemy you hit with your basic attack or.
 * Beware: if you cast dash and while in mid-lunge, the basic attack that immediately follows the dash will make both your stealth expire and your blades collapse
 * While this allows you to deal damage with both volleys as fast as you can, the lack of stealth may leave you in dangerous situations.
 * Similarly, remember that using during  will automatically reactivate the skill, making you lose the stealth
 * is a hard champion to catch. Use to slow pursuers,  to freely dash over the walls and  for the stealth and high movement speed. Try to change your path directions and use your stealth to juke and confuse your enemies.
 * Be careful at the paths you take though, as you may find yourself in front of a wall on cooldown
 * Keep in mind that the enemies can see where your blades travel when your stealth ends, so using the ability just to run can sometimes be better than running into the enemy jungle while trying to juke the enemies.
 * The fastest combo that dishes out the most damage possible is the following: cast, immediately follow with dash and use  in mid-lounge. In this way, you'll quickly stack  on your target and proc it with the basic attack following from your dash. Although you won't be stealthed, you can still use  movement speed to get away (or to the closest wall).


 * Mastery Usage
 * Being an assassin, benefits mainly from the Ferocity and Cunning trees
 * further increases already high early burst. The fact that  and  can deal 2 instances of damage helps to proc it, but it also synergizes with a simple AA-Q-AA since  can reset basic attacks
 * is a more safe choice. The movement speed and Slow Resist it provides help to disengage from the opponents after his burst
 * is meant more as a later game option. Because of its scalings, the DoT it provides can help both into poking and securing kills


 * Item Usage
 * deals strictly physical damage so he benefits from building attack damage items.
 * or are excellent early purchases for, the former for its cooldown reduction and the latter for its armor penetration. Both combine into one of his core items, , which provides flat armor penetration that is very useful for bursting squishy targets, and the active combined with  gives  amazing gank potential in the mid game. It makes catching up to targets and sticking to them far easier.
 * and are another core items that are built almost always. Not only do they give armor penetration(lethality) which is essential for  but they also give useful passives and actives which help in successfuly assassinating an enemy.
 * is an excellent choice against most AP laners and ADCarries such as 's or 's . You can activate the active ability before engaging and put your opponent in a tricky situation where they have to sacrifice one of their abilities which can be cruel to their survival.
 * 's passive deals 200% of lethality as true damage to an target with an basic attack after 1 second of being hidden from the enemy team(bushes etc.).
 * Another essential early/mid game purchase for  is . Not only does it provide a nice amount of attack damage, it also adds armor penetration. It can later be upgraded to  or, both of which not only provide additional  armor penetration as well as more damage, but the former also deals increased damage to high-health enemies (such as bruisers, juggernauts, and tanks), and the latter applies  to enemies, especially strong against healing-based enemies or those who stack life steal.
 * is a good late-game purchase, giving strong armor shred as well as considerable amounts of CDR. All of abilities deal more than one instance of physical damage and several are AoE, making passive stacks very easy to apply to amplify your team's DPS. Do not rush this item till mid game however, as the okay AD and okay build path can weaken your damage in the early and mid game. This is a team-oriented purchase, as this item does a very poor job of helping you burst squishy targets.
 * An early  can be the bane of burst Mages, and later on can be upgraded to . It's essential when facing opponents with 'finishing' moves that deal magic damage like  and . Alternatively, a  can be purchased if 's cleansing is needed.
 * is a great purchase for late game, as it makes  harder to kill and may deter the enemy team from focusing him.
 * is another great choice for late game and splitpushing, as it makes harder to kill and gives him out of combat mobility and a proc that slows and damages the enemy with an basic attack whenever he fully charges.
 * A few unconventional items such as, , and  do work as well yet are not optimal to his assassin playstyle.
 * It is advisable to start with a in order to ward your lane against ganks, unless you are fighting a stealth champion such as  (or indeed another ) in which case  is preferred. However, on ambush champions such as, a  into an eventual  is often preferable past laning phase, so that you can ensure that the bush you're waiting in to ambush the enemy team from is not warded.


 * Countering
 * All of damage output is physical damage, investing in a  or  early (and higher-value armor items later) can significantly reduce his damage.
 * Buying  will make less useful, and also reduce the damage of.
 * is fairly squishy and vulnerable to harassment during the laning phase. Use this to your advantage but be aware that his >  can easily turn the engagement in his favor.
 * When playing as a Mage,  can provide a great amount of defense early game, decreasing  damage substantially.
 * reliance on burst damage is a heavy weakness against targets he can't quickly kill. Fighter champions tend to beat, being durable enough to survive his combo and do enough damage to kill  afterwards - fighters with innate sustainability abilities in particular will survive combo and then just heal themselves back up.
 * It is recommended to engage when you think his  is on cooldown as it is his only escape mechanism.
 * As is his only escape mechanism, s can help your team focus him.
 * Champions with Stealth Detection Abilities like, or  can be a nightmare for  as he couldn't escape even using his.
 * Watch out for his >  combo. It can deal significant damage and combined with  and his passive  will deal significant amounts of damage within a few hits. Zone him when you can and press the advantage.

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