Champion Sneak Peek: Talon, The Blade's Shadow[]
By Average Gatsby[2]
It takes a truly resourceful gentleman to seamlessly combine function and style, particularly on the battlefield. It should come as no surprise, then, that the upcoming champion of the League is a man of both utility and flair.
Allow me to introduce 
Talon, The Blade's Shadow. In addition to looking every bit the part of the cloaked and cowled assassin that he is, Talon's cloak of blades makes him a dangerous and terrifying presence on the battlefield. It's probably best to steer clear of this cloaked and dangerous champion on the Field of Justice, or he won't be the only one pulling a disappearing act.
Talon Mechanics Preview[]
Greetings, Summoners!
Today we wanted to bring you a peek into the mechanics behind Talon, the Blade's Shadow, the new assassin that's joining the League!
Talon, the Blade's Shadow, is a physical damage assassin who specializes in high-mobility, high-risk, high-reward gameplay. Our goal with Talon was to create a powerful but fragile melee character with specialized tools to make him both deadly and evasive. As a result, what Talon lacks in durability and sustain, he dishes out in mobility and power.
The driving force behind Talon's gameplay is the way that he engages and disengages from combat using his four abilities:
- Mercy
- Noxian Diplomacy
- Rake
slowing any target hit in either direction.
- Cutthroat
silences them for a short duration, amplifying the damage of any of his follow up attacks and abilities.
- Shadow Assault
Playing Talon effectively is all about reading the situation and reacting strategically to your target. 
Shadow Assault can be either your saving grace or your deadliest advance. Using it to disappear can sting your target and leave them chasing ghosts. But if it's a fight you want, using it to initiate in conjunction with 
Cutthroat, 
Noxian Diplomacy, and 
Mercy can deal significant burst damage.
To sum up, Talon's a mean, shadowy, vicious assassin... and we're excited to see him join the League soon. And as a side note, his mobility and elusiveness makes him a very good pick on Dominion!
2017 Season Update[]
He's League's original cloak-and-dagger contract killer, and we're adding more precision to Talon's bladed assault. Outfitted with the new terrain-hopping 
Assassin's Path, there's no wall too steep to keep Talon from his targets.[4]
- Blade's End
- Noxian Diplomacy
critically strikes the target. Whenever Noxian Diplomacy kills a unit, Talon regains a small amount of health.
- Rake
slow all enemies hit.
- Assassin's Path
- Shadow Assault
invisible for a few seconds. When Talon emerges from stealth, the blades converge on his location, dealing physical damage each time they pass through an enemy. If Talon breaks his stealth by basic attacking or using Noxian Diplomacy, the blades will converge on his target's location instead.Media[]
| Season 2017 Theme |
| The Blade-Dancing Immortal Theme |
- Related Music
- Related Videos
- Main article: Summoner icon
Trivia[]
- Talon is voiced by Travis Willingham.
Azir is also voiced by the same voice actor.
- Talon's code name in development was Blademan.[5]
- Talon's production name was Bertrand[6] while his title went from 'the Blade Rogue' to 'the Shadow's Blade' and finally 'the Blade's Shadow'.
- The name of Talon's pre-rework innate ability, Mercy, was later reused by Urgot for the recast of his ultimate.
- Devon 'Runaan' Giehl, his original writer, imagined him as a very quiet, almost mute creepy assassin weirdo who is fairly asexual/aromantic, coming across as fairly emotionally blunted and have a lot of difficulty with regular human interaction.[7]
