Talon : Some suggestions on a balance update or a rework.

Hello everyone, and sorry for my poor English ( I'm french...) ! I'm a random EUW diamond player who's played and loved Talon since he's out. I have many things to say, be ready for a wall of text !

Introduction : I have had the feeling that Talon feels clunky since his nerf to his e, so I wanted to discuss the different ways to make him more fun and interactive. The way his skills scales, how they feel and interact with each others should get some love too IMO. Plus I have a few ideas on how to change his skill set. So I will first describe his identity lore-wise, then I'll suggest some easy tweaks to adjust his kit and finally I'll share my ideas on a rework. Please Rito read me :)

First, who is Talon?

To sum up his lore, he is one of the three assassins from Noxus along with Katarina and the mysterious General Du Couteau (soon?...). He only respects strength. So I guess as an assassin he should be :

• vicious (invisibility, bleed, silence, poison abilities...),

• mobile (dashes, jumps, speed-up, can go in and out...)

• lethal (this one is more tricky, but imo this means he should chose a target and stick to it, as opposed to a mage).

Then, he is a Du Couteau, so he should share some characteristics with katarina. With that in mind, let's jump to his actual skillset, and then I'll share my thoughts on an "ideal" reworked Talon.

How to tweak his actual skillset? (source : http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Talon )

Passive :Mercy

Mercy is an on-hit effect. It does not amplify the damage from on-hit effects, such as Sheen or Noxian Diplomacy.

• Tip : The reason why you should take your time to w before ult, but not before q.

• My opinion : this is weak, not very noticeable and it does not involve a lot of gameplay/counterplay (as opposed to shaco's passive for example) . It can't be buffed either, because it would make him scale too hard.

• Solution : rework it (see last paragraph), or leave it untouched.

Q : Noxian Diplomacy

• Tips : use it as fast as you can after the first auto on your target. The bleed effect synergises with black cleaver and it is your lategame tool combined with IE and your luck with crits.

• My opinion : this is Talon's worst designed skill, it is way too generic. Auto attack resets are very powerful tools, so you have to make them weak in order for them to be balanced. That's why the bleeding effect is hardly noticeable. Even with that, it is the main reason why Talon is able to 100-0% an adc in lategame.

• Solution : rework, or : move the damage from the bonus physical on the auto-attack to the bleeding effect, make it last shorter (from 6 to 5 or 4 sec ) and buff the total physical damage (Imo 150% bonus damage would be ok). It would give more identity to this skill : it would feel more like you are actually draining hp from your target. You could even make it deal no auto attack damage, and transfer that missing damage on the bleeding.

W : Rake

• Tip : Not much, just remember to w before ult and build Tiamat with it to wave clear easily.

• Opinion : Talon's iconic spell, which allows him to farm and clean waves. It is easy to understand, it has some good counterplay because of its range. Imo, it defines Talon, and as such I'd like to see it a bit more.

• Solution : keep it the way it is, it's a great spell ! (or check my rework ideas, huehuehue...)

E : Cutthroat

• Tip : use it to escape ganks by jumping on the jungler when he comes behind you. This skill allows you to last hit with your w (which pushes the lane...) if you are pressured too hard, which will inevitably happen as Talon's laning phase is weak in the early levels. so skill order mid should be w>e>w>q...

• Opinion : Riot reaaaaaally has some issues with this skill. For a moment it didn't work, then the auto-attack reset was (and still is...) weird, then they made him jump behind the target, finally they removed the silence (which gave him some lore identity...) and gave him a ridiculous slow... But the silence was only a part of what made Talon broken, along with his q-crits.

• Solution : remove this stupid slow, buff his damage amplification' length to 5-6 seconds in order to make it a duel tool. And/or maybe add some damage reduction like Kat's shunpo. I prefer the first option.

R : Shadow Assault

• Tip : use it to engage from far away with ghostblade, and don't think about it as an escape tool in lategame, because people will have pink wards. Don't hesitate to use it fast when you want to burst someone, it has a greater range than flash.

• Opinion : It's a well-designed spell. At first I thought each blade did damage, so I was a bit disappointed, because it would have been badass. Overall, it's a good spell, even though it lacks a bit of identity... It should feel more like : "I drop my blades and rush like a mad man on a guy!!!"

• Solution : make the invisibility last a bit longer, like one more second/ Make the speed boost last longer too, and boost your move-speed a bit more. To compensate, lower the base damage on his ult (100/150/200 for example).

How to rework him? Something I really like in term of design on assassins is the idea of marks and resets, mainly because it feels like you are focusing on one target at a time. I think Talon should share it with Kata, but with different options in term of gameplay. Let's jump to my ideas :)

• Mercy : I've read it a lot on some forums : switch this with Ashe's or Kha'zix's passive... Seriously though, some (ad/magic/true) damage on the first hit with a cooldown on it would be way greater.

• Noxian diplomacy : make it a low range spell (like Kha'zix q) with a bleed effect. Proc-ing the mark makes the damage instant.

• Rake : buff its damage by 150%, and make it do half damage on champion. It puts a mark for 3s. The mark proc on auto's, q and e. This way he would be able to jungle more effectively.

• Cutthroat : No more slow. Same damage amplification. Jumping on a target with the mark proc it which reset's cutthroat cooldown.

• Shadow assault : less base damage, but procs a mark on every target.

*Conclusion : that would allow Talon to be very mobile in a teamfight, to go in and out like every other assassin. It should tune down his lategame burst a little bit while making him less of an aoe burst ad mage and more of a true assassin. Hopefully more fun for everyone ! *

Thanks for reading me, tell me what you think !

TLDR : some ideas on how to make Talon more fun with a (imo) better design :)