I was planning on making a post about this a bit later but I’ll put it in here now:
I was a hardstuck silver player for seasons 7-11. Literally thousands of total games stuck in silver, almost 600 stuck in silver 1-4 this season alone. I maimed jungle and support, but also tried mid and top a bit when I had no luck climbing with the other two roles. I tried a wide variety of champs and tried to counter pick based off matchups. I watched challenger Vods for specific lane matchups to see which points exactly my champion should beat my laner, if at all and tried to replicate their trading and all in patterns. I watched virkayu vids about jungle theory and pathing all day long. Nothing helped. Still would fall behind early game, still couldn’t translate a lead to all parts of the map if I ever did get ahead, still couldn’t close out games I should’ve closed out. I was a coin flip player.
But 3 things helped me climb out of silver to gold with a 75% win rate in just five days: Strictly playing Jungle bruiser Talon with ignite and smite, getting onto the map QUICKLY and making an impact/snowballing lanes always before the enemy jungler, and recognizing how differently lanes are gonna go before the match even starts so you can path towards the lanes who are gonna fight a lot early. That last point comes with and requires experience laning which I have because I played so many games in so many diff roles with so many champs.
https://na.op.gg/summoner/userName=Longshot69
My page for proof/reference. I have the same core build and build path every game, just a few tweaks based on how much armor the enemy team has for my 3rd or 4th item (seryldas grudge is awesome on talon for a 4th item is they have something like a sejuani or Rammus with heavy armor and who relies on their move speed to catch you with their CC). I run Conqueror, Triumph, Alacrity and Last Stand every game, along with inspiration tree secondary free boots and cosmic insight for cooldown reduction on goredrinker and ignite. Very straightforward, no need for itemization theory here. This is the most efficient way to build him, highest win rate against most comps.
Bruiser jungle Talon is just broken. Absolutely busted if you know how to proc Talons passive mid skirmish decently. Infinite mobility to the point her doesn’t need flash so he can take ignite and win 99% of 1v1’s vs enemy jungler except for a good shaco, trundle, and Warwick. Kayn-like gank angles for bot and top lane by hopping over drag pit into blue side tribrush, or hopping over baron/herald pit into red side tribrush. Insane damage early, sustain with goredrinker that is consistently under respected by the enemy team, especially in low Elo, and amazing clear speed for what he provides with the new buff to his w on jungle monsters. You can consistently get 6-7 cs per minute every game while heavily ganking, taking objectives, and playing the map all cause you have a few points in W. He also counters many of the most meta junglers right now who want to skirmish early like Jarvan, Amumu (just invade him all day long, he’ll always 5-6 camp clear unhealthily in his first clear and tries to take blue/gromp together), kayn, and Zac. He should be pick/ban in the jungle or mid right now in lower Elos in my opinion because of how often every lane fights and his ability to wave clear then roam. He has great damage, AOE poke, damage over time, some of the best mobility in the game, invisibility with his ult, sustain with goredrinker and conqueror, and doesn’t completely fall off after 30 minutes like a Lee Sin or Volibear does.
Now to actually pilot him, you HAVE to proc his passive. He is a glorified cannon minion with ignite if you don’t. To proc his passive early, you have to land both parts of his W and your q, then auto attack once to get the damage over time to tick. It’s important to hold and angle your W correctly so you can land both parts of it, then auto attack, q (which is an auto attack reset), and auto attack, then finish with ignite. This is your most basic, but most important and used combo. Later on when you have your ult, your ult procs one part of your passive, so you don’t need to land the second part of your w to make your passive proc. It allows for room to make mistakes. So it’s important that you don’t mess it up early, that’s how you build early leads and snowball.
After knowing the basic mechanics of Talon by playing a few of games with him, decision making on when to go and where needs to come next. Identify which lanes are gonna fight early on, which of your lanes are gonna get pushed in, and which side of each lane is gonna hit their level 2 spike first (especially matters in bot lane).
For example, as a rule of thumb, if there’s a Yasuo on the enemy team and he’s going up against any melee mid or short ranged champ (except Akshan), you know he’s boutta do some dashing through minions to land a Q3 shenanigans level 2, so do your sides 3 camps to get 3 quickly, use a smite to stay healthy and clear faster, and get out to flank him. Yas has no escapes, so it’s always just a free flash or kill. Then go back to full clearing and regank him after you buy ironspike whip for when he inevitably goes HAM dashing through shit again.
As a rule of thumb, I ALWAYS path towards these champs if they are on my team because they are the win condition 90% of the time (don’t worry about hurting the ADC’s feelings, they’re useless in low elo 90% of the time because they can’t kite properly and can’t position in team fights properly): Irelia, Jax, Yasuo, Yone, Jhin (especially if he has an engage support), Darius, Katarina, Ziggs, Swain, Graves, Sett, Riven, Tahm Kench, WuKong, literally any hyper roaming midlaner because any help that you give them that frees them up to roam helps them do your job for you so you can farm more often and soak up exp/gold from their lanes wave crashing. These are the lanes you wanna focus on in general and the earliest due to their tendency to fight and poke early, or them being hyper carries later in the game.
You also want to notice which lanes have CC in them, since talon has no inherent CC in his kit other than the small slow on W2. Those are lanes you want to take advantage of after your intial clear and gank, like if you have a nautilus/thresh support or a Galio mid. These are the opportunities that are gonna make YOU fed, rather than the hyper carry laners. As talon, you are not always gonna be the win condition. Let most non tank top and mid laners get the kill if it’s possible. It’s a successful game for me if I won, got an equal amount of assists and kills, died less than once every 6-7 minutes, and did at least the 3rd most amount of damage on my team. That’s a good barometer to see if you’re doing your job well on talon. He can’t 1v4 even when fed like a Yone can. He bursts squishies, goredrinkers to heal up, run away, then comes back and bursts another low health target when his cool downs are back up. He doesn’t have sustained damage.
Don’t be a hero. Don’t be a KDA player. Take risks to get your team ahead, that’s the name of the game in Bronze/Silver/Gold. Be proactive and you will win a shit ton of games.
Take objectives with the leads you’ve given your laners. Always prio herald over first drake if they’re both up at the same time and you know drake will be contested. It’s worth more gold and map pressure.