A potential rebalance for Talon to put him in a better place
The PBE has some potential changes for Talon which I believe will put him firmly in the "weak enough that his low counterplay won't ruin the game he's in" state. While that's enough until Talon's number is called and he gets reworked, I think I have a solution that will make him balanced instead, with no drastic mechanical changes.
(Here's the tl;dr) If they want to fix Talon's counterplay issues, there's a simple solution that fixes Talon's other problems as well. Here's a short list: P: Increased damage, applies to Q's bleed Q: Damage increased by P, increased DoT damage, animation scales with Attack Speed W: Reduced damage, lower mana cost, increased damage vs minions E: Lower cooldown at earlier ranks R: Reduced damage, blades retract after a fixed time rather than when stealth ends
The problem with Talon is that if his burst is too high, he has no counterplay. This is because all of his damage that isn't from P or Q's bleed (which are the weakest parts of his kit) happens very quickly (Q is a bit dodgy though). Additionally, W and R are AoE. Why is all of Talon's damage put here? It makes no sense on an Assassin, an AD Assassin no less. If Talon's damage is shifted to P and Q, it takes him longer to kill his opponents, and therefore gives him counterplay. Since Talon is a squishy melee who basic attacks, he needs something to let him keep up with his opponents, and that's where E comes in. E is perfect for this purpose. Now I've given an overview, here's a more specific description of the changes:
P: Talon builds AD. His Q has a low cooldown. This passive makes so much sense, except 1: it's weak as hell, and 2: he doesn't have enough CC to keep it active. Beefing up the damage is logical, but why let bleed apply it as well? Talon's CC happens at the start of his combo, which means that P would only be there to increase Talon's burst, which is something we're trying to avoid. Giving Talon permanent CC is bad for obvious reasons, so that's why the bleed should keep P active. This will basically make Talon have a +% basic attack modifier, unless he fails to land W. W isn't the easiest ability to miss, but it gives a little punishment for misplaying.
Q: A basic attack modifier works perfectly with Talon's kit, but the bonus damage doesn't work with P. It should, not because it needs to, but because it makes sense to. This may need reduced numbers to compensate, but it looks like Q should be amplified, so it should be. The DoT damage was originally reduced for 2 reasons, IIRC. The first is a valid reason, which is that DoTs are under appreciated. I think that this is a necessary evil though, for the next reason.
The second reason is that it gave Talon a weird negative scaling with cooldown reduction, due to the bleed being cut off before it finishes. I think this is something that needs to be reintroduced. Almost every Assassin wants to max CDR since it lets them do their burst rotation more often. Talon's abilities have low counterplay, so making Talon suffer for building it is a good idea in my eyes. Since Q will be a large source of Talon's damage, CDR will still be a good stat on him. This change also helps fight snowballing as it will reduce the bleed's impact on his damage, which will be increased to help lower Talon's burst but not total damage output.
W: Poke is unacceptable on a low counterplay Assassin. Being forced to kill the opponent or be worn down into instadeath range is not good gameplay. Riot tried to hit the mana costs to prevent this but this just makes Talon painful to play when he gets behind, which is also why the extra minion damage is there. Clearing minion waves makes Talon a better roamer but it also pushes his lane, which makes it safer for his opponent. The lower damage is to lower the amount of hard to avoid damage he pushes out. The slow gives him a good chance to initiate, which can make up for the lower damage, but only if he takes a risk instead of safely poking.
E: Why oh why am I defending a targeted Silence? Because Talon takes a risk by using it. He puts himself in his opponents back without a way out, and that Silence is needed to prevent the inevitable skillshot from instantly hitting him. However since it's a Flash he can also use it to avoid a skillshot. So does he really need that Silence? No, not really. That's why the duration is so short. Even with the faster Q I doubt he will easily avoid the follow up ability. It does let him get enough time to land his Q, which is bad if his burst is enough to kill someone, but if he can't then it's required to give him some consistency.
Another factor is that E is Talon's only healthy way to trade, which is why an early game reduction in cooldown is needed. W is just safe poke. E means that Talon puts himself at risk to deal damage, which creates a mind game with his opponent. The safest thing for both champions to do is nothing: if Talon E's in, he will likely be hit by a full combo, and if he uses W his upfront damage will be lower. If his opponent tries to use a skillshot, Talon can E to dodge it. However, Talon's opponent will have the upper hand, as Talon can be poked down. This forces Talon to try and take initiative to win the lane, which he has the tools to do so if he plays smart. The cooldown shouldn't be low enough that he can endlessly stick to his opponent though
R: A huge AoE nuke that gives Talon a bit of breathing room if nothing red or pink appears next to him. The part I like most is the brief moment of safety he gets; it's ruined since it's stealth but I don't want to try and tackle the stealth problem here. The ring retraction applying when stealth runs out is something I feel should be changed because it gives a small amount of counterplay: run the heck away from Talon. This won't really apply in a 1v1 but in a teamfight encouraging the enemy team to not gather around and eat you is a good thing. The lower damage is just a formality to reduce the amount of low counterplay damage. I think because of this change though we can bring up the second round of damage as it's now somewhat avoidable, but it's not strictly necessary.
The playstyle I want these changes to create is an opportunistic Talon that smartly uses E to avoid some damage from his opponent in order to win trades. I don't want him to poke with W until he can kill with his combo; W poking should be a safe play but not an effective one. W should be used to get good initial damage with Q. Talon should have to land several Qs in order to kill an opponent, and basic attacks can speed up the process. Using a second E in a fight shouldn't happen in lane unless it's been going on for a really long time, so an escape from Talon is possible (the vision means he can chase for some time though). 1v1 Ring should be for the repositioning and not for the damage, that damage is multiplied by 5 in a teamfight after all. Later on in the game Talon should fill a melee carry style of role where he finds opportunities to catch people out. His abilities are reliable which means his damage shouldn't be. Let him die if he tries to enter a fight early, but if he isn't dealt with let him be a mobile menace.
Another crazy idea I had was to make E a short Suppression instead of a Silence. Gives him a special teamfight utility while preventing him from dealing damage while he's CCing someone. A low cooldown Suppression is probably not a good idea though, even though I think it'd be fun if it worked. I think the rest of the ideas I have here though are good, and will make Talon better for the game.
