Rather than the usual "what champion needs to be reworked?", whom do you think are the best designed champions? Consider things like: realized thematic, metagame impact, balanceability, enjoyment, counterplay, skill floor, skill ceiling, novelty/uniqueness, etc.
BetaDude4045 votesI'll say it once, I'll say it again
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MasterRace
SlytherinUmbreon35 votes
Hit's most of the bases players like.
Simple design, High skill cap/Floor, Doesn't feel ridiculously oppressive to play against, doesn't negate her opponent's skill with the press of a button.
Ofcourse,Iambiased -3-
YOU BEEN WARNED9 votesA good Orianna makes laning the definition of zoning and torture, I rather afk and hand myself over to a dominatrix than play against a whorianna.
FastAsHeck27 votes
is pretty balanced sarcasm intensifies
KazaLyn Shao20 votesI think Ashe was always one of the best game design examples, aside from her old passive. She was the first true ADC. Long AA range, good AD scaling, harass, good synergy with critical items, mediocre wave clear, and low mobility. You know, like an ADC should be. Not this "I can jump after every auto-attack" or "I can hop walls on a 10sec CD" bullshit that we have now.
Daedalus87130 votesAshe's permaslow is the original cause for league of mobility though.
KazaLyn Shao3 votesWhat? Uhm, no. Ashe predates league of mobility by years, and Ashe was obsolete once league of mobility became a thing. There are tons of champions with massive slows. At least Ashe had to be in AA range, and she's an ADC so she can't exactly nuke you. I don't believe you for a second.
Orbv14 votesIt's been said many times by the developers back in 2011 that Ashe forces champions to NEED an ability to travel distances just to reach her. Her, Morgana, and Luxanna saw counterplay in Irelia, who was an issue all in herself. So they boosted the number of speed boosts and gap closers as a result.
Hence, she was one of the causes for the league of mobility.
Kuma No Neko13 votes
or
Because they're one of the few champions that isn't either
A. Broken
B. Lacks counterplay
C. Overloaded
And they have ACTUAL risk-reward gameplay unlike half the assassins in the game
Hello I am Bird13 votes never recieved any balance changes besides the 10 armor EVERYONE got that one time >.>
while a good champion is riddled with bugs, and I dont think can be considered healthy until they are fixed
MrBuffington13 votes 
I feel like these champions are almost immune to balance or meta changes, since their kits are pretty much always useful. In the hands of a master, they can pretty much always be played in high elo, not really for them being FOTM OP, just that their kits are really good. There might be a dip in playrate following a major nerf, but they always manage to come back into the game without much help, if any.
EDIT: Just realized OP asked for examples of game design in the title. I was under the impression that they were asking for champions that were well designed (sounds like that in the body of the post), which, for me, the two are distinct. A well designed champion is one that doesn't really lose in champion select; they have ways to adapt to the game no matter who they're against (all champions can do this to some degree, but the above are champions I think have a much easier time at it because their kits are well designed).
In terms of game design, I think the list changes, because it's not limited to what a single champion can produce in a game, but what the champion pool as a whole provides. I also think there is an important difference between game design and game balance. A game can be balanced by providing all champions with generalist sorts of kits like the champions above, which give them good ways to respond to most situations, but Riot lately is pursuing the direction where champions have more of a niche, so champion select is a more impactful part of the game, and champions have a niche with clearly defined strengths and weaknesses, counterplay, etc. not only on a 1v1 basis but on a team-comp basis as well. I think that list would look something like:
Where these champions generally excel at a particular thing or two, have enough flexibility in their kit/ways to play around their weaknesses that they typically don't get shut down too badly (I'm talking about a high level of play), but aren't at the level of the above generalists (TF is an area of overlap, imo, since he loses some lane match ups pretty bad, but he's a lot about winning your other lanes instead of mid lane anyways).
Nameless Voice44 votesThresh and Lee Sin are certainly not examples of good design. They have completely overloaded kits, allowing them to deal with almost every situation, along with a lot of "unfair" power that their opponents can't really counter. They also have lots of strengths but few defined weaknesses.
SEKAI11 votes[{quoted}](name=Nameless Voice,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=Fl5nXsdV,comment-id=000a0000,timestamp=2015-06-09T17:02:22.740+0000)
Thresh and Lee Sin are certainly not examples of good design. They have completely overloaded kits, allowing them to deal with almost every situation, along with a lot of "unfair" power that their opponents can't really counter. They also have lots of strengths but few defined weaknesses.
Thresh and Lee Sin are the opposite of being fairly designed, their design philosophy is outright horrible.
"I want to design a champ who is good at literally everything at any given time, immune to any meta changes, team compositions, item and enemy champ synergies, fit in all team comp and is forgiving to every mistake I make", does that sound cool, unique, balanced and fun to you/anyone?
Their defined strength is that they don't have a weakness besides the standard class weakness. And that's not cool.
I Main Swain3 voteshow is thresh forgiving to every mistake he makes? he's barely forgiving to any mistake you make, if at all. if you wif an ability on him you can lose a massive portion of your supporting capabilities. id also like to note, there are a dozen other champs that are immune to meta changes.
Algurmorbid2 votesWhile not forgiving to every mistake, he is a very forgiving champ.
When his Q lands, it not only reduces the cooldown but as Thresh you actually can chose wether or not to go in on the Q, something that champs with similar abilities ( 
) do not have, with them it's If you land you go in. Aswell as that, Thresh's Q CC's the person it hits anyway for 2 secs, before he even goes in on it.
The argument about if you wiff an ability you can lose a massive portion of your supporting applies to other supports, and other champs in other roles. It's essentially an argument that doesn't apply to Thresh specifically so cannot be argued as one of Thresh's weaknesses. Just like how every champ is countered by CC, so if the only counterplay for a champ is to "just CC them" then that champ is not well balanced.
AbsoluteSadman9 votesIn a vaccuum, their kits are amazingly designed.
In practice, they just are better designed than the vast majority of champions, leading to them being stronger.
I Main Swain1 votespersonally, I don't think thresh has a lot of unfair power. I do think he could use a couple small nerfs, but I've always felt like he's that character every old melee game had which was avg in all their stats rather than super strong in 1 and weak in the others. he seems like a pretty hard champ to balance, honestly.
Nameless Voice2 votesHe's hard to balance because he has so much in his kit that he's still really useful even with very low numbers.
Nameless Voice11 votesFor me, Lux is one of the best examples of a well-designed champion. She has a lot of power in some areas (range, burst damage, cooldown [edit: on her ult]), while also having clearly defined and meaningful weaknesses (immobile, very weak up-close, entirely skillshot-based, mana costs.)
ChaoticPinecone4 votesaside from her ult, her cooldowns are pretty high. Her burst is not huge until 3-4 items.
But i agree - Lux is a well designed and balanced champ. i think every mage should be nerfed to lux's standards.
Lost In Time10 votes
'nuff said.
Mad kids can't play vs Ekko.
Hello I am Bird3 votesWait, excuse me? Ekko is good design? I mean, I know almost all his abilities are telegraphed, but that isnt a reason for him to be able to nuke for all your health and get back his health while having incredible poke and a 2.5 second stun with the highest shield ratio in the game...
Solideus15 votesAn overtuned champion can still be well designed, though! :) Disregarding the numbers, I also think Ekko has an interesting kit with interesting play around it. It remains to be seen if he'll be easy to keep balanced, though.
Meep Man10 votes
Is, to me, the basis of what a Tank Jungler needs to be. His damage is overtime, he is pretty tanky, and he is a great initiator. Never seems to not be a threat no matter what meta there is, showing that he doesn't have any design flaws or weaknesses that force him out of the meta entirely.
Is a really grand designed Support that is also just offensive and defensive enough to cover the whole spectrum. Is what every Melee or Close-Ranged Support should be overall modeled after as far as power wise.
Is what every single Mage Jungler should be like. Mobility to get them in, but not too much as well as a ton of magic damage to take down an enemy. Also has decent crowd control, but has a blaring weakness to crowd control himself. Has high mana costs to force him into the jungle to get blue so that his power can be adjusted to be a jungler and not a middle lane to corrupt his otherwise extreme power over extended time. Would be a huge lane bully if not for his high mana costs and SURPRISE playstyle.
One of the most basic Mages overall with a great design. His kit revolves around his Q and R so that he has great presence with and without his ultimate.
Is what most Energy users should be based around for power level. He has significant ups and downs that make him fun to play and not unfun to play against. While he might not be the most thematic champion, his gameplay is pretty solid overall. If his Q and W were made to be even better in some way, he would be the funnest to play lane tank in the game. Low skill floor, highish skill ceiling, fun to play as, and not aggravating to play against. Great design.
A really well designed Assassin overall. He has down sides, but oh man does he have his up sides. He can be reacted to at an overall balanced rate, but still deals a lot of damage.
Fits his theme and play style very well with, once again, big ups and downs for the opponent to look out for and abuse. Is what most Fighters should have their "power level" modeled around since he isn't too storng, but not too weak.
This is all just my opinion of course.
Terff10 votes 
Mandang09 votes 
Most supports are actually pretty well-designed.
Serpens21 votes
Most supports are actually pretty well-designed.
Except Zyra was and still is a mage. The fact that she's considered a support now proves that riot really messed up in terms of balancing her.
Mandang09 votesThose were just the first 2 that came to mind. The statement about supports was a reflection after.
Zyra's still a well-designed champion, support or mage, because of the qualities listed in the OP.
After all, this thread's about design, not balance.
Sammystorm3 votesRelease
hides in a corner
Mandang05 votesThe title of the post says 'game design'. Number balance is a different matter.
Considering the list of qualities in the OP, I'd say Zyra was very well-designed.
Dracid8 votes
baby. super simple but in the hands of someone who knows how the game works, can destroy
chavyy1427 votes
. Singed will always be, for me, the definition of less is more in champion design. His kit is so simple but it makes playing him completely unique from playing other champions. I would say 90% of playing singed is knowing your limits so maybe his skill ceiling isn't exactly high, but he is really satisfying and has obvious counterplay (don't chase singed).
stealthfox946 votes
and 
are all pretty well designed IMO.
Earl Eulrich14 votesI think Yasuo could have been well designed as a bruiser, but currently he´s just bullshit snowbally with really low counterplay. Pretty similar to poppy actually...they gutted his laning fair enough to make it hard for him to reach that unstoppable state, but if he gets there it´s still just painfull.
Keevalroy13 votesAlmost upvoted, then that image was slipped in at the end.
Absolutely not.
stealthfox941 votesAre people down-voting me just because I put in there? That's plain stupid, I've you agree with most of my choices but disagree with just one.
Keevalroy11 votesWhen you include one of the worst-designed champions in League's existence on a 'best-designed' list, yeah.
Reikken3 votesYasuo is a little broken when paired with other allies that can knock up easily, but other than that I think he's pretty well designed. His Q tornado could stand to be a little slower though. A max range Q should be easier to dodge than it is. But wind wall is a great skill. Powerful but long cooldown, and he himself is short range other than that Q tornado. So you can wait it out if you're far away, or sidestep it if you're already close. Or if your team has a champ that can do it, use a non-projectile CC to CC him through it. That's always really satisfying.
Nahara5 votes
would probably get my vote.
I remember a while back when (I think) gypsylord was talking about Vi's development and mentioned how all of her abilities were designed around different ways of punching someone. Thematically, I think they did a great job and she is very fun to play as. Mechanics I'm not sure I can comment on.
IcyPepper3 votesI don't play Vi because of her mechanics, her power, or whatever else.
I play her to punch things.
I'd say Gypsylord succeeded in that department.
mi ramfan4 votes
Has clear strengths like her incredible waveclear, good burst, and revive passive, but she also has clear weaknesses like her mana costs, her slow Q, and her lack of mobility. Her abilities are easy to grasp but still take time to master; for example, new Anivia players can focus on just landing the explosion of her Q, while skilled Anivia mains can land both the pass through and explosion for double the damage. To top things off, she's been at least "okay" in every meta, and skilled mains of her are always a strong threat.
JungHai04 votesI love Vel'koz's design.
He hits all the right points in all the right areas for me.
His appearance. Flying tentacle laser alien. 'Nuff said. His abilities also all look nice, and he has great skin.
He's supposed to be a long-ish range poke kind of guy. And that's what he does. He doesn't do everything and anything like a few certain champions. He has his niche. He does it well.
He has a fairly simple kit, but it also has at least some depth. Also, positioning is very important as getting caught out by a tank while ulting probably will lead to death.
He is absolutely deadly when doing well, but still has a lot of counterplay, like most immobile mages.
If you can't tell from him not being buffed or nerfed ever, (the armor buff doesn't count as every champion in the game was buffed to make up for the armor rune nerfs,) he is balanced. Just a little bit.
His ultimate is one of the few ultimates that really feels ULTIMATE! Whenever I pull off a huge, multi-man ult, it feels great. Other examples of really good ults would probably be Sejuani and Lux.
Speaking of feeling good, his kit feels really nice to use too. Everything just flows together when spamming spells, but each ability also feels meaningful by itself. Ryze, for example has really nice flow but his abilities don't have impact by themselves. I'm not saying that's bad, that's just how he is.
His niche is also unique. He's a cross between the long range utility mages, immobile burst mages, and DPS mages like Ryze. He takes a little bit from each, and makes it his own.
I really, really, like the Sion rework for exactly the same reasons. Has his own niche, sticks to it, cool appearance, cool lore, has counterplay, nice ult, simple kit with depth.
Daedalus8713 votesI feel like Yi meets all those criteria.
Buttigieg 20207 votesYi just feels like a face roll feast or famine champ. He either 2 shots you or makes the game a 4v5 for his team. Exaclty like his other mADC friends.
Daedalus8714 votesNonsense. A glass cannon Yi does good because he is either good, or because the enemy team is bad. The converse of this is also true. Granted, the middle ground of "doing ok" for glass cannon Yi is small, but there are other builds.
Earl Eulrich3 votesprobably orianna, though most immobile mages are actually really great...they combine high dmg output and some mobility and pay for it with their vulnerability. Also, i actually think most ADCs would be rather well designed if you took crit away from them. With less overall AA-throughput they really would have to work around their kits instead of just rightclicking, and most of those ktis work very well for that purpose.
Solideus4 votesI've seen the argument that mobile mages don't really "pay" for their strengths the way immobile champions do. I wonder what the go-to "tradeoffs" for high mobility should be.
Earl Eulrich2 votesless dmg would be the obvious answer for me, same reason i theoretically would like adcs without crit - the mobility/range enables those champs to stay in a fight longer if played optimally or reach vulnerable targets more easily...so the focus for them should be to stay there longer or get a really good flanking to have as much impact as an immobile champion.
Anonagon3 votes
ok I can see already that this pick is going to be a little controversial, so let me explain:
His kit fits his theme and fantasy perfectly. He is a Jester assassin. His kit? All about trickery and mind games. Balance wise, of course he's a complete asshole to play against, but his kit brings variety and excitement that few other champions can match. He reeks of the crazy power curves and abilities of DOTA, which lots of modern "do everything" champions lack.
Counterplay is rife because unlike other assassins he doesn't 100-0 burst you unless he's ridiculously fed and you are ridiculously behind
xGvPx2 votes not often played mid nowadays but can play mid and support still :)