Talon Counters: Who Beats Talon

Updated for patch 26.21. Ability details come from Riot’s official game data for this patch.

Talon counters are mid laners who punish his dives with crowd control or simply can’t be burst: mages with stuns, roots and suppression, champions who can turn untargetable, and anyone who interrupts dashes. Talon is a 125 range assassin whose damage comes from stacking Blade’s End and leaping in with Noxian Diplomacy. Stop the leap and he’s in melee range with nothing left.

The five mid laners below were chosen kit by kit. No win-rate statistics were used.

Why is Talon hard to counter?

• Blade’s End (passive): his spells Wound champions up to 3 times, and an attack on a target with 3 stacks makes them bleed for heavy damage.
• Noxian Diplomacy (Q): a stab that crits in melee range or leaps to the target from further away; a kill refunds some health and cooldown. Cooldown 8/7.5/7/6.5/6.
• Rake (W): daggers that fly out and back, damaging on both passes; the return deals more and slows. Cooldown 9/8.5/8/7.5/7.
• Assassin’s Path (E): vaults over any terrain or structure; the used terrain goes on a long cooldown. Cooldown 0.
• Shadow Assault (R): a ring of blades goes out while Talon turns Invisible with Move Speed, then converges on him when he reappears. Cooldown 100/80/60.

Talon’s whole game is roaming. Assassin’s Path lets him hop walls to reach side lanes faster than anyone expects, and once there, Rake, Noxian Diplomacy and Shadow Assault stack three Wounds for the Blade’s End bleed. The burst is fast, physical and mostly up close. What does that mean for you? Two things: he has to get near you, and he has no hard crowd control of his own beyond Rake’s slow.

Which champions are the best Talon counters?

Malzahar

Talon’s first stab tends to hit Malzahar while his passive is still up, and that passive means huge damage reduction plus immunity to crowd control. Nether Grasp (R) suppresses one champion over a damaging zone; a diving Talon caught by it is finished. Call of the Void (Q) fires projectiles that deal magic damage and silence enemy champions, which stops Talon from casting his combo. Malefic Visions (E) deals damage over time, and Void Swarm (W) sends Voidlings after anyone afflicted. He also pushes waves fast, which keeps Talon stuck in lane instead of roaming.

Lissandra

Ring of Frost (W) roots everything around Lissandra, the perfect answer to an assassin who lands in melee range. Frozen Tomb (R) works two ways: cast on Talon it stuns him, cast on herself it makes her untargetable and invulnerable while healing, which wastes his whole combo. Ice Shard (Q) slows and passes through targets, and Glacial Path (E) is an ice claw she can teleport to. Iceborn Subjugation (passive) turns champions who die near her into Frozen Thralls that slow and then shatter. To be fair, she’s built to stop exactly this kind of champion.

Vex

Doom ‘n Gloom (passive) periodically empowers her next basic ability to fear enemies and interrupt dashes, and every time a nearby enemy dashes, Vex marks them for bonus damage that also speeds up her next empowered state. Talon dashes constantly. Personal Space (W) shields her and damages nearby enemies, perfect when he lands on her. Looming Darkness (E) slows. Her Q missile speeds up as it travels; her ultimate tags a champion and lets her dash after them. Honestly, Talon’s leap-in is the exact thing her kit punishes.

Anivia

Crystallize (W) creates an impassable wall of ice for a short time. Assassin’s Path can vault terrain, but each piece of terrain he uses goes on a long cooldown, and a fresh ice wall in the right spot blocks his path to her. Flash Frost (Q) stuns in an area on explosion. Frostbite (E) doubles its damage on targets just hit by Flash Frost or a fully formed Glacial Storm (R), which slows anyone in the hail. And if he does kill her? Her egg passive gives her a second life at full health (if nobody breaks the egg first).

Annie

Annie fights from 625 range and starts every life with Pyromania (passive) ready, so her next offensive spell stuns. A stunned Talon can’t finish the combo. Molten Shield (E) shields her, adds Move Speed and damages anyone who hits her, which punishes his Rake and stab. Disintegrate (Q) is a point-click fireball. Incinerate (W) burns a cone. Summon: Tibbers (R) drops the bear on him, and Tibbers keeps attacking and burning nearby enemies. Thing is, she has no escape at all, so the stun has to come first.

How do you play the lane against Talon?

• Stay out of melee range. Noxian Diplomacy crits when he’s already in melee range, so the leap is the less dangerous version.
• Dodge the returning Rake; the blades deal bonus damage and slow on the way back.
• Count his Wounds on you. At 3 stacks from his spells, his next attack starts the Blade’s End bleed.
• Ping when he leaves lane. Assassin’s Path lets him reach side lanes over walls quickly.
• Expect the ultimate to come from nowhere, since Shadow Assault makes him Invisible with extra Move Speed.

Which items counter Talon?

His damage is physical, so Armor does the heavy lifting. Zhonya’s Hourglass is the mage’s answer: 50 Armor plus Time Stop, which puts you in Stasis for 2.5 seconds while his bleed and blades run out. Plated Steelcaps add Armor and cut damage from attacks by 10%. Marksmen can turn to Guardian Angel, whose Rebirth brings them back after lethal damage. Burst is exactly what Death’s Dance blunts: Ignore Pain delays part of each hit and deals it over 3 seconds instead (it’s a fighter item, mostly). Look, Armor early often decides the matchup. All stats are in our LoL items database, and Guardian Angel has its own page.

When is Talon at his weakest?

When he’s stuck in lane. Talon wants to roam, and a mid laner who shoves waves hard forces him to choose between losing farm and losing a tower. Neither suits him.

He’s also weak once Shadow Assault is down. It’s 100 seconds at rank 1, and without it he has no Invisibility to set up a gank and no burst finisher (well, apart from a Q crit in melee range). Take the fight then.

New to mid lane? Our guide to LoL roles covers what mid laners do. Skins? See the Talon skins page. On the Howling Abyss, he gets a separate Talon ARAM guide. Real talk: Talon counters stop the leap, build Armor, and keep him busy in lane so he can’t roam.

FAQ

Who counters Talon the most?

Malzahar, whose passive and suppression stop his dive; Lissandra, who roots and can become untargetable; Vex, who fears and punishes dashes; Anivia, who walls him off; and Annie, whose Pyromania stun lands first.

How does Blade’s End work?

Talon’s spells Wound champions, stacking up to 3 times. When he attacks a champion with 3 stacks, they bleed for heavy damage over time.

Can Talon jump over any wall?

Assassin’s Path vaults over any terrain or structure up to a max distance, but the terrain he uses goes on a long cooldown.

What does Shadow Assault do?

Talon sends out a ring of blades and becomes Invisible with extra Move Speed. When he reappears, the blades converge on him, damaging enemies each time they move.

How were these Talon counters chosen?

From his patch 26.21 abilities, compared with each mid laner’s kit. We didn’t use win rates.