League of Legends throwback Thursday: pre-rework Talon

In this edition of Throwback Thursday, we look at what League of Legends champion Talon was like before the assassin rework.

Back in Patch 6.22, League of Legends underwent one of its major class updates focused on the assassin class. While champions like LeBlanc, Katarina, and Kha’Zix were the focal point of this patch, one champion that got significantly overhauled – and is rarely mentioned in the breath of other reworked champions – is the Blade’s Shadow himself, Talon.

It seems odd to newer League of Legends players, but prior to 6.22, Talon was a very different champion. His kit was much simpler, straight-forward, but also easy to play against.

In the class overhaul, he had a total rework to his passive ability and two active abilities. Almost three years later, it seems appropriate to remember Talon in all his previous glory.

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Back before the rework, Talon’s passive was Mercy, which caused his basic attacks to deal bonus physical damage to enemies affected by slows, stuns, roots, or suppression. Now, this wasn’t much help to Talon, as he had only two forms of crowd control in his kit, but it gave him nice synergy when playing with engage or tank champions.

Talon’s Q – Noxian Diplomacy was a much more simple version of his current Q, which grants a dash and bonus damage. Back in the day, Noxian Diplomacy gave Talon that same bonus damage and the bleed effect that is now on his passive. But instead of a dash, his Q gave him an auto-attack reset.

His W – Rake was basically unchanged in the rework, but arguably the biggest change to his kit came on his E. Previously, his E – Cutthroat caused Talon to blink behind the enemy champion, massively slowing them and dealing bonus damage. That blink was eventually moved to Talon’s Q, but this point-and-click gap closer, combined with his passive, gave Talon a very easy all-in pattern.

Of course, his new E – Assassin’s Path gives Talon that Assassin’s Creed/parkour feel that the dev team was going for, and it works well in combination with his ult ability. That R – Shadow Assault was basically untouched in the rework, for good reason. The stealth into massive damage from a converging ring of blades is a pretty iconic ability.

New Talon is a champion that is focused on getting a lead and snowballing it by roaming to other lanes and getting killed. But in the past, Talon was more focused on asserting his dominance by killing his lane opponent over and over.

Do you miss Talon’s old kit? Let us know in the comments below!