to summarize the following text, here's what happened after the recent patch:

Nerfed: early game damage, ulti aoe damage
buffed: late game single-target damage (only slightly, but still ok)

level 18
lvl 18 ad: 105.8
bonus ad: 150
total ad: 255.8

talon pre-nerf (ampl not working)

combo: silence/amp + autoattack + nox. dipl + bleed + rake + shadow ass
= 1.0(because ampl not working) * [255.8 + 255.8 + (150+45) + (90+180) + (260+180) + (520+270)]
= 2206.6

after nerf

combo: silence/amp + autoattack + nox. dipl + bleed + rake + shadow ass
= 1.15 * [255.8 + 255.8 + (150+45) + (50+150) + (260+180) + (440+225)]
= 2313.34


so let's find out how much bonus ad you should have to get the same damage pre-nerf and post-nerf (LEVEL 18)

let bonus ad = x; bonus damage scaling on the left, fixed damage on the right side. Autoattacks are not included.


2x (for the AAs) + 0.3x + 1.2x + 1.8x + (150+90+260+520) = 1.15 * [2x + 0.3x + 1x + 1.5x + (150+50+260+440)]

5.3x + 1020 = 5.52x + 1035

0.22x = -15
x = -68.2 bonus ad (meaning, at lvl 18 for the combo above, post-nerf talon does more single target damage than pre-nerf, since you cant have negative ad)

However this calculation is for lvl 18. For lower levels, the ampl is not that great and his scalings were reduced.


but at lvl 18, he will do more damage than pre-nerf since you should have more than 43.75 bonus ad at that time.

so overall, post-nerf talon does less damage early game,less aoe damage, but slightly better single target damage late game.

edit: so this is a mix of nerf & buff (or should i say fix). however, i think this is more of a nerf, because his early game damage is his primary asset to contribute to the team, and even if his late game single-target damage is now better, getting stunned or cc'd during that 3 second amplification duration will greatly impact his burst. i hope riot will buff his silence duration to compensate for this. just my opinion.

edit: i included the AAs in the calculations.

problem is all of that only applies on the target he casts his e to and that spell's on an extremely large cooldown it's still a massive nerf to his team fight damage cause he still does less against everyone else.
also his e was always his 1 point wonder and the amplify only had issues sometimes this means his early game just got nerfed to the ground cause having a 3% damage increase always apply isn't really justified.

probably is that he already has a slow early game in comparison to most other assassins and its entirely item dependent. IE farm from early game which they just nerfed.

*Problem

didn't they only nerf his late game damage on his skills *checks* OH YEAH, they did only nerf his late game damage(aside from noxian). He still farms like a boss. If people can farm with LeBlanc and do fine, talon should be easy as cake.