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By GamGem ResearchLast updated 18 Oct 2026

Talon Jungle Build, Runes and Counters · Patch 26.20

the Blade's Shadow

Patch 26.20 · Stats from the 26.18 Master+ sample (7,226 games).

Talon, the Blade's Shadow, vaults over any wall with Assassin's Path and vanishes with Shadow Assault before his blades converge. Most of his counted Master+ games were jungle games and the rest Mid, Fleet Footwork leading, and Umbral Glaive, Bastionbreaker, Voltaic Cyclosword was by far his top build. Nidalee, Rengar and Lillia were his hardest jungle opponents. He edged out Wukong, Naafiri, Lee Sin and Viego.

Assassin

Patch 26.18 · Jungle · Ranked Solo/Duo · Master+ · EUW · KR · NA · 7,226 games · Preview sample

League of LegendsPatch 26.18JungleRanked Solo/DuoMaster+EUW · KR · NA7,226 gamesPreview sample

Role snapshot (Jungle)

STier

Win Rate: 51.4%
Pick Rate: 11.0%
Ban Rate: 28.5%

7,226

Games

Very High

Confidence

Win rate by lane

Jungle51.6% · 5,637 games
Mid51.3% · 1,519 games

Most common path

1,346 games

57.6%Win Rate

Start

Flash

Smite

Other first item

91 games

64.8%Win Rate

Start

Flash

Ignite

Runes

Patch 26.18

This exact page: taken in 18.2% of games·51.7% win rate over 1,318 games.

Primary

Precision

Fleet Footwork

Attacking and moving builds Energy stacks. At 100 stacks, your next attack heals you and grants increased MS.

Triumph

Takedowns restore 5% of your missing health and grant an additional 20 gold.

Legend: Alacrity

Takedowns on enemies grant permanent Attack Speed.

Coup de Grace

Deal more damage to low health enemy champions.

Secondary

Inspiration

Cosmic Insight

+18 Summoner Spell Haste+10 Item Haste

Magical Footwear

You get free boots at 12 min but you cannot buy boots before then. Each takedown you get makes your boots come 45s sooner.

Shards

Adaptive Force
Adaptive Force
Health Scaling

Other keystones taken

Electrocute18.9% taken · 50.2% win1,364 games
Conqueror17.2% taken · 50.1% win1,246 games
First Strike14.0% taken · 50.5% win1,010 games

Tree pairs

Precision + Inspiration53.5% taken · 52.5% win3,866 games
Inspiration + Domination13.7% taken · 50.5% win987 games
Domination + Inspiration13.4% taken · 48.7% win971 games

Skill Order

Which ability to max first, and the level each point goes in — Talon's most common path.

Noxian Diplomacy

Talon stabs the target unit.

Cooldown 8/7.5/7/6.5/6s · 40 Mana

Rake

Talon sends out a volley of daggers that then return back to him, dealing physical damage every time it passes through an enemy.

Cooldown 9/8.5/8/7.5/7s · 50/55/60/65/70 Mana

Assassin's Path

Talon vaults over any terrain or structure, up to a max distance.

Cooldown 0s · No cost

Shadow Assault

Talon disperses a ring of blades and becomes Invisible while gaining additional Move Speed.

Cooldown 100/80/60s · 100 Mana

Max Order

WQE

Max W first, then Q, then E. Take R whenever available (6 / 11 / 16).

Level-up Order

QNoxian Diplomacy
WRake
EAssassin's Path
RShadow Assault

Ability	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
QNoxian Diplomacy		Q						Q		Q		Q	Q
WRake	W			W	W		W		W
EAssassin's Path			E											E	E		E	E
RShadow Assault						R					R					R

Matchup map (Jungle)

How Talon performs against enemy jungle laners

Levels 1 – 18 · Master+40%60%Talon's win rate

≥ 60%Very favorable

55 – 60%Favorable

50 – 55%Even

45 – 50%Unfavorable

40 – 45%Hard

< 40%Very hard

Conditional build matrix

Recommended items by enemy team composition

Master+ · Patch 26.18

Mythic / CoreFirst major item

Core 2Second item

Core 3Third item

BootsBoot slot

SituationalPick as needed

Scaling — minute 10–30

TalonJungle average

Gold

102030

Damage to champions

102030

Counter plan — how to beat Talon

Deny the reset — it wants a kill to come back out; a warded exit removes it
Punish the cooldown — Talon is exposed while its rotation is down
Ward the flank — vision is what turns its best opening into a worse one
Respect the spike — Riot rates the kit 7/10, so a practised player gets more out of it than the average
Trade on your terms — take the fight where its damage lands on nobody

Ability details

P
Blade'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.
Passive — never cast
Q
Noxian 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.
Cost 40 ManaCooldown 8/7.5/7/6.5/6sRange 575
W
Rake
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.
Cost 50/55/60/65/70 ManaCooldown 9/8.5/8/7.5/7sRange 650
E
Assassin'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.
No costCooldown 0sRange 725
R
Shadow 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.
Cost 100 ManaCooldown 100/80/60sRange 550

Talon balance history

Riot's notes from patch 25.S1.1 to 26.20 change Talon in 1 patch. The latest is patch 25.22, published 2025-11-04.

Patch 25.222025-11-04
PNoxian Diplomacy
- Damage to Monsters110%to100%
Why, in Riot's words
Talon is running (front-flipping) the jungle right now, especially with the newly-buffed Axiom Arc. By comparison, he’s pretty fair in mid, so we’re just looking to give him some jungle-specific nerfs without hurting his viability mid.

Talon skins (13)

Riot's data lists 13 looks for Talon with their own art, the base skin included and 47 chroma variants.

ARAM performance

EstimateS+

Win Rate: 53.9%; ▼ 0.5%
Pick Rate: 8.7%; ▼ 1.6%
Ban Rate: 2.4%; ▲ 1.6%

Damage dealt: 100.0%
Damage taken: 96.7%
Healing: 106.3%
Shielding: 100.7%
Ability Haste: +18

Best ARAM build

Patch timeline

Riot’s notes

This champion’s win rate on each patch the preview sample spans, over its own games there. What actually changed each patch is in Riot’s own notes.

26.1952.7% over 2,085 games+1.0
26.1850.9% over 3,908 games0.0
26.1750.8% over 1,211 games—

Talon's base stats against all 173 champions

Talon's base magic resist of 36 is the 2nd-highest of 173 champions on patch 26.20.
Talon's base health of 658 is the 16th-highest of 173 champions on patch 26.20.

Stat	Talon	Rank	Median
Base health	658	16th	620
Health per level	109	=38th	104
Base armor	30	=82nd	30
Armor per level	4.7	=42nd	4.6
Base magic resist	36	2nd	32
Magic resist per level	2.05	=4th	1.55
Base attack damage	68	=5th	59
Base attack speed	0.625	=117th	0.656
Attack speed per level	2.9%	=58th	2.5%
Move speed	335	=74th	335
Attack range	125	=129th	175

Talon at level 1 and level 18

Talon reaches 2511 health at level 18 — 658 at level 1 plus 17 × 109, the 30th-highest of 173 champions on patch 26.20.
Talon reaches 1029 mana at level 18 — 400 at level 1 plus 17 × 37, the 62nd-lowest of 145 mana users on patch 26.20, shared with 1.
Talon reaches 109.9 armor at level 18 — 30 at level 1 plus 17 × 4.7, the 67th-highest of 173 champions on patch 26.20, shared with 1.
Talon reaches 70.85 magic resist at level 18 — 36 at level 1 plus 17 × 2.05, the 3rd-highest of 173 champions on patch 26.20.

Stat	Level 1	Per level	Level 18	Rank at 18
Health	658	+109	2511	30th of 173
Mana	400	+37	1029	=83rd of 145
Armor	30	+4.7	109.9	=67th of 173
Magic resist	36	+2.05	70.85	3rd of 173

Riot Data Dragon 16.20.1. Growth curve: League of Legends Wiki — Champion statistic.

Riot's tips for Talon

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.

Playing 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.

Quick answers about Talon

How does Talon do against Nidalee?: Talon won 43.5% of 262 counted Master+ games against Nidalee. Nidalee is one of the opponents that beat Talon.
How does Talon do against Rengar?: Talon won 45.5% of 178 counted Master+ games against Rengar. Rengar is one of the opponents that beat Talon.
How does Talon do against Lillia?: Talon won 39.0% of 59 counted Master+ games against Lillia. Lillia is one of the opponents that beat Talon. A small sample — read it as a lean, not a rule.
How does Talon do against Wukong?: Talon won 60.6% of 137 counted Master+ games against Wukong. It is a matchup Talon wins more often than not.
How does Talon do against Naafiri?: Talon won 58.6% of 128 counted Master+ games against Naafiri. It is a matchup Talon wins more often than not.
How does Talon do against Lee Sin?: Talon won 53.8% of 357 counted Master+ games against Lee Sin. It is a matchup Talon wins more often than not.
How does Talon do against Viego?: Talon won 53.4% of 208 counted Master+ games against Viego. It is a matchup Talon wins more often than not.
How does Talon do against Qiyana?: Talon won 52.2% of 477 counted Master+ games against Qiyana. It is close to even.
What class is Talon?: Riot classes Talon as Assassin. This site files the champion under Jungle.
How hard is Talon to play?: Riot rates Talon's difficulty 7 out of 10.
What resource does Talon use?: Talon's abilities spend Mana.
What is Talon's attack range?: 125 units — the lowest of 173 champions on patch 26.20 (shared with 44 others).
What are Talon's abilities?: Passive — Blade's End, Q — Noxian Diplomacy, W — Rake, E — Assassin's Path and R — Shadow Assault.
How many skins does Talon have?: Riot's data lists 13 skins with their own art, the base look included, plus 47 chroma variants.
How much health does Talon have at level 18?: 2511 — 658 at level 1 plus 17 × 109 per level, Riot's own values, before items and runes.
What is Talon's ultimate cooldown?: Shadow Assault (R): 100/80/60 seconds by rank, before ability haste, in Riot's Data Dragon 16.20.1.
When did Riot last change Talon?: Patch 25.22, published 4 November 2025 — the latest of 1 patch that change Talon in Riot's notes from 25.S1.1 to 26.20.

Talon at a glance

Talon, the Blade's Shadow, is a Assassin champion in League of Legends. Riot rates the kit 7/10 for difficulty, 9/10 for attack, 3/10 for defense and 1/10 for magic. Talon spends Mana and has 13 skins with their own art. Talon's base magic resist of 36 is the 2nd-highest of 173 champions on patch 26.20. Talon's base health of 658 is the 16th-highest of 173 champions on patch 26.20.

Attack9/10
Defense3/10
Magic1/10
Difficulty7/10

Talon's story

Talon is the knife in the darkness, a merciless killer able to strike without warning and escape before any alarm is raised. He carved out a dangerous reputation on the brutal streets of Noxus, where he was forced to fight, kill, and steal to survive. Adopted by the notorious Du Couteau family, he now plies his deadly trade at the empire's command, assassinating enemy leaders, captains, and heroes… as well as any Noxian foolish enough to earn the scorn of their masters.

— Riot Games, Data Dragon 16.20.1. League of Legends Universe

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Methodology

Data window: Preview sample — a one-time snapshot of 65,406 ranked games (Master+, EUW/KR/NA, patch 26.18), counted by GamGem while our Riot production key is under review. Figures will update daily once it is approved. Counted 26–27 Sept 2026; patches 26.18 (35,477) · 26.19 (18,580) · 26.17 (11,048) · 26.16 (293) · 26.15 (8); by server EUW 22,382 · KR 21,922 · NA 21,065 · EUNE 20 · TR 17. 642 games without a result — remakes ended by vote in their first minutes, and games recorded with no winner — were not counted.
Rank aggregation: Master, Grandmaster and Challenger, pooled — the three ladders the count read its players from. Splitting further leaves samples too small to separate a real effect from noise.
Role assignment: A champion is filed under every lane that holds at least a tenth of its counted games — the position the match itself reports, not the champion’s class. Its headline win rate is across all of them; each lane’s own win rate and games are counted too, and a lane’s tier list ranks by them.
Counters: The two champions in the same position on opposite teams, over that pairing’s own counted games — ranked on the edge pulled toward zero by its sample size, printed raw.
Minimum sample: None — no figure is hidden for being thin. Every rate prints its games, and the confidence band is its 95% margin: Very High within ±1.5 points, High ±2.5, Moderate ±3.1 (1,000 games), Low wider.
Why a build is not a cause: An item is counted when the match ENDS with it, so late items show long games and an item bought when already ahead shows games that were being won. Correlation is what a rate can show; it is not evidence that buying the item caused the win.
Where the numbers come from: Names, classes, abilities, items and runes are Riot Data Dragon. Win, pick and ban rates, builds, keystones, spells and matchups are counted by GamGem from Riot's ranked match records. An estimate, not a count: this panel is not in the preview sample, and is labelled so.

Talon on video

Talon: Champion Spotlight | Gameplay - League of Legends — League of LegendsLeague of Legends on YouTube · plays here

Published by League of Legends on YouTube, 24 August 2011.

15 years old. League of Legends has been patched since, so watch it for how the kit plays, not for numbers — the rest of this page is written for the current patch.

It plays in YouTube’s own player once you press play. Nothing is downloaded or re-hosted here, and nothing loads from YouTube until then.