Guide · Jungle

Talon Guide

the Blade's Shadow

Assassin

Tier C Jungle

Talon, the Blade's Shadow, is an assassin champion that is demanding to master. Across our 1117 analysed ranked games, Talon is mostly played in the Jungle (76% of its games), and more rarely in Mid (24%), with a 51.2% win rate in that role: tier C among Jungle champions (#37 of 48, ranked by win rate). Talon's damage is mostly physical (88%): armor is the best defensive answer against this champion. 12% of that damage is true damage and therefore ignores resistances. Win rate varies with game length: 52.6% in medium-length games (25 to 35 min, 462 games) versus 45.1% in long games (over 35 min).

Updated Oct 10 2026 · Patch 26.22

Averages measured over 854 Jungle games played with Talon, from our ranked Solo/Duo data collection.

How to play and combo preview

Talon is a mobile assassin: his abilities wound champions and large monsters (up to 3 stacks), and an attack on a champion with 3 wounds makes them bleed for heavy damage over time. Assassin's Path lets him jump over walls, and Shadow Assault makes him invisible with a speed bonus.

The trade

W › Q › AA AA

When: An enemy is within blade range.

Rake damages on the way out and back and slows, Noxian Diplomacy stabs (critical strike in melee) and stacks, your attack triggers the bleed at 3 stacks.

The assassination

E › Q › W › AA AA › R

When: A carry is isolated behind a wall.

Assassin's Path crosses the terrain, Noxian Diplomacy leaps onto the target from range, then Shadow Assault makes you invisible and damages the enemies hit by the blades.

See all 3 Talon combos: key order, when to cast them, cooldowns →

Laning phase

Stack 3 wounds with Noxian Diplomacy and Rake, then attack to trigger the bleed. Assassin's Path has a short cooldown but the terrain crossed has a long one: do not overuse it.

Common mistakes

• Attacking without the 3 wounds: the bleed depends on the stacks.
• Using Assassin's Path without thinking: the terrain crossed has a long cooldown.
• Casting the ultimate too early: the blades return to you when you become visible again.

Riot's official tips for playing Talon

• You can use Assassin's Path to get behind the enemy and set up for Noxian Diplomacy's melee attack.
• Shadow Assault 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 Talon's abilities on one target can be very rewarding, but splitting them up between many may leave you helpless.

Build, runes and summoner spells

The most-played core build is Bastionbreaker, Umbral Glaive, and Voltaic Cyclosword (278 games, 56.8% win rate).

Bastionbreaker+Umbral Glaive+Voltaic Cyclosword

278 games · 56.8%

Umbral Glaive+Edge of Night+Voltaic Cyclosword

125 games · 56.0%

Bastionbreaker+Umbral Glaive+Edge of Night

116 games · 63.8%

Skill order

Max order : W > Q > E52.7% · 112 games

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Q		●						●		●		●	●
W	●			●	●		●		●
E			●											●	●
R						●					●

The order shows which abilities reach rank 5 first; the grid shows the most-played level-up sequence with that order (measured over 128 games).

Starting items

Gustwalker Hatchling44.2% · 52 games

Scorchclaw Pup52.6% · 38 games

Scorchclaw PupHealth Potion70.6% · 17 games

First completed items, in order

Umbral Glaive›Bastionbreaker›Voltaic Cyclosword

25 games · 44.0%

Laning phase (averages)

At 10 min: 4283 gold, 75 CS, 4217 XP. At 15 min: 6840 gold, 118 CS, 7247 XP.

Summoner spells

Flash + Smite51.7% · 802 games

Smite + Ignite42.3% · 52 games

Most-played runes

Fleet Footwork + Inspiration

51.1% · 552 games

Primary tree · Precision

Triumph100%

Legend: Alacrity95%

Coup de Grace88%

Secondary tree · Inspiration

Cosmic Insight95%

Magical Footwear88%

Shards

Adaptive force100%

Adaptive force100%

Health scaling92%

First Strike + Domination

49.6% · 133 games

Primary tree · Inspiration

Cash Back97%

Triple Tonic99%

Cosmic Insight98%

Secondary tree · Domination

Sudden Impact98%

Treasure Hunter90%

Shards

Adaptive force98%

Adaptive force100%

Health scaling74%

Electrocute + Inspiration

46.7% · 90 games

Primary tree · Domination

Sudden Impact100%

Grisly Mementos62%

Ultimate Hunter70%

Secondary tree · Inspiration

Cosmic Insight67%

Cash Back54%

Shards

Adaptive force99%

Adaptive force100%

Health scaling84%

For each row, the most picked rune among the games played with this page (share of games in brackets).

Which items to build against the enemy team?

We sort every game by the enemy team's damage. These are Talon's completed items and their win rate in each situation; "▲" marks an item that does at least 3 points better than its usual win rate.

Mostly magic-damage enemy team56.9% · 241 games

At least 50% of their damage is magic

Umbral Glaive 60.6% ▲

Voltaic Cyclosword 61.3% ▲

Bastionbreaker 64.1% ▲

Edge of Night 62.8% ▲

Lord Dominik's Regards 62.3% ▲

Serylda's Grudge 59.6%

The item that stands out most is Umbral Glaive: 60.6% win rate, +10 points versus its usual win rate.

Mostly physical-damage enemy team45.0% · 231 games

Less than 35% of their damage is magic

Umbral Glaive 41.3% ▼

Voltaic Cyclosword 46.0% ▼

Bastionbreaker 48.8% ▼

Serpent's Fang 43.7% ▼

Edge of Night 57.1%

Youmuu's Ghostblade 52.8% ▲

The item that stands out most is Youmuu's Ghostblade: 52.8% win rate, +4 points versus its usual win rate.

Balanced enemy team51.3% · 382 games

Mixed physical and magic damage

Umbral Glaive 50.8%

Voltaic Cyclosword 50.0%

Bastionbreaker 55.6%

Edge of Night 58.5%

Lord Dominik's Regards 55.1%

Serpent's Fang 53.2%

No item clearly stands out in this situation: the usual build remains the reference.

Counters and matchups

Who counters Talon in the Jungle

Graves Talon: 29.2%24 games

Graves has the edge in 71% of the 24 Jungle duels against Talon. See the Graves guide.

Kha'Zix Talon: 31.6%19 games

Kha'Zix has the edge in 68% of the 19 Jungle duels against Talon. See the Kha'Zix guide.

Nidalee Talon: 33.3%21 games

Nidalee has the edge in 67% of the 21 Jungle duels against Talon. See the Nidalee guide.

Qiyana Talon: 46.7%30 games

Qiyana has the edge in 53% of the 30 Jungle duels against Talon. See the Qiyana guide.

Rengar Talon: 46.7%15 games

Rengar has the edge in 53% of the 15 Jungle duels against Talon. See the Rengar guide.

Who Talon is strong against

Hecarim73.3% · 15 games

Lee Sin71.4% · 28 games

Cho'Gath64.7% · 17 games

Viego61.1% · 18 games

Kayn56.2% · 16 games

How to play against Talon

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

Win rates measured over direct same-role duels; only matchups with more than 15 games are listed. See all of Talon's matchups.

Talon Jungle: what our games say

Laning phase against the Jungle average

Measured over 128 Talon games with a timeline; the average covers 69 champions played Jungle in our ranked games.

Win rate by game length

Best result: medium-length (25 to 35 min). Only groups of at least 30 games are shown. A gap of several points shows the phase where the champion is the most reliable.

Talon in another role

Role	Games	Win rate	CS/min	Gold/min	Most-built items
Mid	263	50.6 %	7.2	452

Roles where we have at least 40 Talon games.

Abilities

PassiveBlade's End

Talon's spells Wound champions and large monsters, stacking up to 3 times. When Talon attacks a champion with 3 stacks of Wound, they bleed for heavy damage over time.

QNoxian Diplomacy

Talon stabs the target unit. If they are within melee range, this attack deals critical damage. If they are outside melee range, Talon will leap at his target before stabbing them. Talon refunds some health and cooldown if this ability kills the target.

WRake

Talon sends out a volley of daggers that then return back to him, dealing physical damage every time it passes through an enemy. The returning blades deal bonus damage and slow units hit.

EAssassin's Path

Talon vaults over any terrain or structure, up to a max distance. This ability has a low cooldown, but puts the used terrain on a long cooldown.

RShadow Assault

Talon disperses a ring of blades and becomes Invisible while gaining additional Move Speed. When Talon emerges from Invisibility, the blades converge on his location. Each time the blades move, Shadow Assault deals physical damage to enemies hit by at least one blade.

Other Jungle champions to know

Most played

Lee Sin50.1 %Graves49.2 %Qiyana51.4 %Viego47.2 %Jarvan IV50.4 %Hecarim49.2 %Sylas50.2 %Kha'Zix50.9 %

Strongest (at least 100 games)

Rek'Sai58.7 %Quinn56.9 %Briar55.4 %Kayn54.3 %Shaco53.4 %Nidalee53.3 %Vi53.0 %Rammus52.9 %

Frequently asked questions

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