Hello; When making a champion, how do you decide which type of weapon suits the champ? Also which takes priority first, give abilities based on the weapon, or make abilities then pick a weapon that goes along with?
A lot of champion designs begin with an opportunity space such as Pyke being a support-assassin, or a gameplay hook like Camille's literal hooks. In those cases there's already some pretty solid leads for visual exploration around what those champions are doing. Once we get to agreeing on a faction or role for the champ (Bildgewater spear-fisher, Piltover secret agent) it starts becoming very clear what kind of weapons they might have access to.
Other times we could start by looking at what exciting fantasy weapons we haven't already explored in LoL. I have a big book on my desk called 'Weapon', it's got everything in it! I will say if you take a look at a list of projectile-weapons we've covered almost all of them, we even played with the idea of a slingshot for Neeko. Next ADC is gonna have to just throw rocks... oh wait! 
!
In terms of priority, we've gotten pretty good at a very collaborative workflow with art, design and narrative staying flexible and iterating to support the best ideas each discipline is bringing to the table. Sylas' lore and visual design began by being built around his ultimate and how it felt to use in playtests (opponent-reliant, intelligent, improvisational, very very cruel) which gave us the idea of a sinister mage held prisoner. Originally he had more of a traditional caster look but on the narrative side the writers felt a Demacian mage held in secret would be best, and we wanted someone who looked just like Demacia's heroes (
) to play foil without it becoming a Thor/Loki Jock/Nerd situation. Then once we saw these huge hefty chains in concept art a lot of his kit was tweaked or reworked to best utilise the whip-like restraints.
League is an interesting case in terms of game design. Some of our best champions embody their weapons: Darius' kit is like a top 4 of things you can do with an Axe, even down to a passive that causes bleeding and the haft doing less damage than the head of the weapon. His personality is sharp an decisive, there's not a soft bone in his body! My favourite examples are 
and 
. Other champions are more of a fantasy trope (
) and their weapons are secondary to the theme. Casters are generally very difficult, without clear real-world metaphors like a spear or a shield connecting gameplay to visuals can be much trickier but there are still ways to bring ideas together and not just Staff + VFX. I think 
, 
and 
are all good examples of finding a weapon for a mage that can inspire gameplay.
I guess it varies, but my best guess is that the champions basic vision is done first, then it’s organic (I.e. A mage would utilize magic or some sort of magical artifact or a warrior would have a large weapon such as a sword or spear) Obviously, the abilities must come first before weapon, but must work in tandem, so I’m thinking they have the idea for the ability, then the team working on the potential champion choose a fitting weapon for him/her/it.
I think it's based on the design of the champ. Like, "What are we going for? Is this champion going to be an slow, armored warrior? Or will they be a quick-moving light-footed rogue, slipping in and out of fights?" Once those things are settled, and they have a visual idea (Concept Art and so on) of the champ, then they start thinking "OK, How does this champion fight?" Then the weapon gets chosen.
I personally would like to see some weapons that haven't been used, or at least in some cases, not used in ways I think they could be really neat.
For example:
I would like to see a champion wielding a Warhammer or Maul of some kind, like Shao Khan's hammer/maul, the Wrath Hammer from Mortal Kombat. They'd probably have to be a Fighter or Tank for it to work in terms of their Kit, and if they were to go the Fighter route, it would just make more sense to make that hypothetical Fighter a Juggernaut to match with the massive size of the weapon. If they were to go Tank, they'd probably have to make the champion a Warden, as I would think carrying such a huge weapon would slow them down, and thus not fit for the more "Initiator-Style" gameplay that Vanguards have.
Here's an image for reference:
I know we have Poppy 
, who wields a Hammer designed somewhat like this, but I guess what I would like to see is a more BRUTAL hammer user, one that bashes in the heads of his opponents with it. Basically like how Shao Khan uses his, essentially. I'm NOT saying "Just make Shao Khan in LOL", I'm saying make a brutal Fighter (Or Tank, that could work too) who functions similarly, but in League's unique style.
Another weapon that could be neat is based upon an Eku, an ancient weapon of Okinawan kobudō that originated from an oar. The weapon was loosely referenced in Chrono Cross, the sequel to the classic JRPG Chrono Trigger, where the main character Serge used a ornate, double-ended eku as a weapon.
Another image for reference:
Once again, I'm not saying make a champion based DIRECTLY on this character; I'm saying that a champion who wields the WEAPON, or one SIMILAR to it, could be interesting. Once again, he'd probably have to be a Fighter (Probably leaning more towards the Diver Sub-Class rather than Juggernaut) or he could be a Skirmisher.
There are many many more weapon types that could be used, I'm sure, but that's all I can think of at the moment.
The champion insights give some ideas as to Riot's thought process when making champions. Jhin's is particularly interesting in the way that they explored his theme and character, and his weapon.
