My Talon Rework Idea

So my boi Silvester Talone who never stops coming is a shoo-in for the big 6 in the Assassin Rework that has been hinted at heavily. Talon has been a champion that has been starved for a rework or proper update for a long time now so it stands to reason that people are not only excited but have come up with a plethora of ideas for what Riot could do with him.

So here are mine: First I wanna establish the goals i aimed to accomplish with these ideas.

1. Preserve the key aspects of Talon's identity as a champion and even help pronounce them better.

• His ability and affinity for manipulating both his vision of the enemy and his enemies vision of him. Talon's stealth and reveal are aspects of his kit that aren't fully utilized to express his character. He is a guy that should be about tracking down his targets and ambushing them and then getting away without being seen.
• His affinity for capitalizing on Impaired targets. This is everywhere in his kit, and while very prominent isn't expressed in any meaningful way.. They are more just number checks in his current state.
• His underdog prodigy street rat nature. Talon, unlike other assassins had no conventional training. He got by purely on his own self taught means, trying to get by in his harsh conditions, and despite that he proved to be even more deadly and formidable than the vast majority of the Noxian Assassin division. I personally feel his more hap hazard as well as his more improve escape methods as opposed to a simple one like other Assassins such as Zed or Leblanc helps cement this aspect of him and it should remain in his kit. However, this can be better pronounced by giving him more small ways that he has to use all together to get out of sticky situations, as opposed to hoping his one very unreliable way works out for him.

2. Create more windows of counterplay to play around him, as well as make him more of a teamplayer.

There should be more ways for Talon to be dealt with other than not dying. When Talon goes in, he should feel like he did it right, not because he merely didn't have** the damagez.** and when he does something right, it should feel like ti was because he did it right for both parties.

Imo, Talon was already a most teamplayer of the assassins that currently exist, but now it will be more pronounced with unique utility and more visceral gameplay elements.

3. Going along with the previous point, Talon should be given more ways to play with his opponent in order to make him less binary, and to give him more confirmation checks when he did something successfully, as well as when he does something wrong.

When Talon fucks up, it should feel like he did something wrong, not "I dont have enough damage."

Passive - Noxian Diplomacy After being movement impaired for 1 second, enemy champions become marked with Noxian Diplomacy. Basic Attacks against a marked champion that is movement impaired applies "Missing Blades".

Missing Blade: Marks the Target for 6 seconds, granting vision of them via a blood trail, dealing damage over time that increases with the targets Missing Health. Can be stacked up to 5 times. If the target is below 40% HP and has 3 stacks or more, they are also slowed for the duration. Duration refreshes every time Talon auto attacks said movement impaired target.

Talon enjoys Movespeed when moving towards champions marked with Missing Blade based on the amount of blades they are marked with.

Upon reaching 5 stacks, the target's vision radius is reduced for 1 seconds. (cannot be applied to the same target more than once every 8 seconds.

• Context. it goes without saying that Talon's passive was gonna get a lot of work but in essence, I didn't really give him anything to wild or crazy. I took his old Q Passive and re-purposed it with his old passive to be more immediately noticeable, worthwhile and understandable for both talon and his opponent.

Instead of a mere 10% damage on Movement impaired targets, Talon's passive now functions similar to Jhin'x W passive, only instead of being marked by hits from teammates and snaring them, they are marked by movement impairing CC and get marked with Missing Blades, which keeps the spirit of the old passive while giving it more meaning and being something both his team, his enemies and himself can play around, as well as giving it a more interesting relationship with the rest of his kit.

Talon's Old Q passive was rather unremarkable, and while iconic to him, didn't do enough. Now, a part of his Innate Passive, it has a more prominent aspect in his kit. His ability to track his opponent via the blood trail is now more prominently pronounced with an MS boost when tailing them, and the actual bleed will now serve as an execute when targets are low, as a means of making it meaningful without simply making it simply apply more damage.

Based on what Talon does to targets with Missing Blades in them, Talon will be given different options but at the cost of others. This means that when Talon makes a choice, he is limited on what he can do, but he now has multiple avenues to deal with a situation.

This will be explained as we go through his spells.

Q - Shadow Blade Talon's next basic attack deals bonus damage. If the target is movement impaired, Talon enters Stealth for 1 second, slowing enemies in a small circle around him for by 99% for 0.25 second.

If the target is a large monster or Epic monster, Talon will lose a blade when he attacks, granting him Vision of the target for a 1 minute and 30 seconds and make the target unable to attack for 2 seconds.

• Context This is Talon's new bread and butter, as I think riot always intended the spell to be. As is on live, at lower ranks The Cooldown on Talon's Q is moderate, but at higher levels it becomes very short. Not only does this give Talon a way more interesting PvP dynamic, but theoretically speaking, this will give him a lot more outplay potential at all point in the game, as well as room to be outplayed.

I moved his old E slow here, as I feel it has much more potential to be great if used on a more frequent basis, but only if Talon properly capitalizes and sets up the situation for it.

In lane, If Talon gets a slow, he can then Q someone for a clean trade without preventing the opponent from outright not being able to prevent it from happening, and also gives Talon the option of either retreating or following up afterwards. This also gives Talon a bit of scrap potential to get himself out of sticky situations mid to late game if played right, as now Talon has a way to temporarily aid his escape by giving him a bunch of "mini escapes" when he gets caught in a tight spot, but only if Talon successfully meets the conditions. Think almost Vayne Ult->tumble but less oppressive and harder to do.

If Talon properly Applies his Q on slowed enemy champions in succession, he can skirt around a team fight just a bit and potentially just enough to save himself, but would require it be played properly, as well as giving him a small amount of minor disruption to help his team out without simply being a damage dealer.

The mark on monsters is to give Talon a niche as a potential Jungler pick. This would give Talon a way to keep tabs on objectives in a way that isn't simply a ward, which i feel would make him very in valuable and give him a strategic niche. However, he'd have to apply it himself via melee range and would only be able to do it ones every given time, so he would have to predict and pick which objective he wants to keep tabs on. The aggro thing is just so he doesn't take damage for no reason when he marks the objective, and to help his jungle clear if he is picked as a Jungler.

W - Rake Talon sends a volley of Blades out in a cone in front of him, slowing The target and dealing Damage. The blades will consume Missing blades on each pass, dealing additional bonus damage depending on how many blades were in the target, and increasing the slow based on said amount. If the target is Vision impaired, no stacks will be consumed and the Vision reduction is refreshed.

• Context His W is very iconic of the champion so I didn't think it needed much re-tweaking in how it functions. That said , i wanted it to have more interaction with the rest of his kit.

In a laning scenario, it can be used to close out a trade by dealing additional damage after Missing Blades have been stacked on the target, but this comes at the cost of Missing Blade stacks on said target. However. if Talon uses it on a Target that is vision impaired, which he can do by getting 3 stacks on his target, the stacks will not be consumed.

This gives Talon an ultimatum: Does he use W sooner for a bit more immediate extra damage at the cost of his stacks or does he wait it out a bit to keep the stacks on the target, and get a longer vision reduction on them?

Additionally, Talon now has to pick and choose not only when he wants to engage, but what kind of engagement he needs to make.

This also gives Talon's opponents more ways to play around his kit as well as opening up the window the opponent has to retaliate.

Additionally, this gives him a bit more (tho minor) team synergy with and

E - Cutthroat Talon Blinks to target location enemy, interrupting channels and marks the target instantly with Noxian Diplomacy for 3 seconds. If the Target is Large or Epic Monster, his damage to the target is amplified by 25% for 3 seconds.

• Context No need to change the name of the spell. Making it interrupt keeps the main utility of the spell from back when it had a silence without giving him back said silence. (and letting the name remain the same, so we can keep the pun), as well as perfectly befitting Talon's affinity for capitalizing on targets with impaired movement.

  I removed the scaling per point % Damage amp because it was honest holding Talon kit back and creates a lot of invisible power issues and a skewed scaling curve, and instead re-purposed it to at best help him in the jungle or capitalize on marked Objectives.

  Instead, It now keeps its initiation power from before without simply being an invisible damage check that keeps Talon from being strong until his last 5 levels with the weird power curve ti created.

  Since it instantly applies his passive, Talon will not have to worry about being completely team reliant and needing an enemy to proc his passive for him, while still being rewarded and encouraged for it.

  This is mostly here so Talon can still actually function, as otherwise, the kit would be counterproductive to itself.

Ultimate - R - Shadow Assault Active: Talon disperses A ring of Blades Around him and enters stealth, dealing damage on each pass of the blades. First cast applies a stack of missing Blade to all enemies hit. The second cast, all targets marked with Missing Blade have the blades removed from them, consuming them and going back to Talon, dealing additional damage based on the targets current Health based on the amount of blades in the target, removing the Vision Radius Debuff from them if they happen to be afflicted.

Passive: While Stealthed, Talon enjoys a 40% movement speed boost for 1.5/2./2.5 seconds

• Context Ah yes, Talon's Ultimate. This change does several things.

It ties his ultimate together with the rest of his kit in a way that makes him have to choose what he wants to do with his passive, as well ties in well with how his kit already works. It forces Talon to give something up if used improperly in several different facets as well as rewards him for making the correct choice.

It follows through on Talon being a rather hap hazard guy with the way his kit works.

With that last stack of Missing Blade, Talon can potentially proc the bonuses of his passive if he sets it up VERY very well on several targets without making this his only viable scenario and making it something that while potentially useful isn't game breaking of game changing.

In essence, the spell will continue to have the same function it currently has, but now it forces Talon to hold out simply dumping all his spells on one person fast enough. as he now has to, ever so slightly open up a space to give a response window to his opponent via having to either stack his Passive a bit for good enough damage or letting the bleed run out as much as possible before using the second proc of his Ultimate to seal the deal. This also gives them a window to use or whatever they have to try and eek out that bi of time, but also creates a fun dynamic(one i dare say is more interesting than even Zed's) where you then can attempt to wait out the Zhonyas timer before going all in with your ultimate, meaning both players have something to play around. This in addition to how his W functions means Talon has to play his game well for optimal output on top of making picks and choices.

The Passive is to let the MS from his Ult remain the same while not making the stealth from his Q too potent early on, giving him a steady power curve. The Speed boost at level 6 will be essentially the same.

As you put points in your Ult, the MS boost when you stealth from Q will become more potent.

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Overall Talon's base play pattern still persists. He will still be E>W>Q>R or E>auto>Q>W>R etc etc, but now he has to think about when he wants to use these spells, how much he wants to auto and in what order he wants to use his spells, as well as when he wants to use them. Additionally, he has a bit more tricks up his sleeves that let him just about make it out of situations of done right, and a new niche as a guy who's swooping in robbin' your objectives and keeping tabs on em.

His up front damage would have to be toned down of course, but his overall quick burst potential and viability will be better for it, as well as his play pattern more healthy and interesting for both parties involved.

Thoughts?

If some areas could use some adjustments, I'd very happily welcome ideas and suggestions.