Things that Need to Happen
Bluestone Pendant needs to be removed, and 
Heartseeker needs a nerf. This seems very agreed upon by the community here, even if HiRez doesn't recognize it. For those who missed the enormous conversation in the forum, Bluestone Pendant removes the inherent weakness of hunters, and Heartseeker makes them stronger in their weakest period.
Qin's Sais needs to be reverted to its old state. Guardians are popular now because nothing short of a full power-penetration 
Loki can get through them singlehandedly. Qin's Sais's passive, back when it was good, was why we didn't see 3 guardian comps. This also makes characters like 
Kali and 
Osiris viable again, as well as the Unicorn builds and variations thereof.- Guardians with too much mobility need reworks. These tanky CC-heavy characters should have to invest in some sort of transportation and initiation to be effective, not have free ultimates like
Defender of Olympus or dashes/leaps a la 
Preemptive Strike and 
Death From Below. - Hunters with nerfed clear should get it back.
- Magical ADCs (
Freya, 
Chronos, 
Vulcan, 
Poseidon, 
Zeus) should be viable. A (significantly less powerful) magical equivalent of Bluestone Pendant could accomplish this. This also makes other stacking items like 
Ancile more viable on traditional hunters. - The snowballing mechanic should be revoked or at least nerfed.
- A similar comeback mechanic should be created to even out teamfights and allow both teams an "equal" chance at winning. Games would be more even.
- MOST IMPORTANT: Design needs to realize what balanced means and doesn't mean.
Bellona was a travesty. 
Medusa was in her own right a travesty as a hunter. 
Hou Yi, 
Awilix, and 
Nox, are all **** in terms of competitive viability. We can all see that gods like Bellona, 
Sylvanus, and 
Serqet were made for the express purpose of use in competitive settings, but they still dominate casual play due to their inherently powerful kits and base stats. Stop the power creep and we're on our way to a more balanced game.
Because
I don't think
Actually ...
I don't think
Also, I do agree with nerfing
Also, I think everyone will agree with this :
( If you didn't know,
Loki cannot... No right-minded Loki would focus a tank anyway as he'd have to use everything on them and he'd be a blind duck. No guardian is in the back line of the fight for you to target. Then again, it's likely you'll be CC' before you can kill the enemy guardian. The only time you focus a guardian if he/she is alone or out of position and that's with anyone really. Arachne does fare well with guardianss and warriors because of her passive and slow. Serqet was one I forgot for bursting down tankier targets.
As Sub said with "snowballing mechanics removed" it's much more complex than that. Then again you can't remove all snowballing mechanics then why would kills even matter? heh
1.
2. There need to be god and ability changes, I'm just not going to make them specifically.
3. Agreed. The game needs to change.
@Zilby and @Stuke,
2. You said you didn't want to make god/ability changes...and on your list, you say there has to be god and ability changes?
3. There is no single "snowball mechanic." It's a mixture of various factors, mainly itemization, gold flow, gold/XP income, jungle camp mechanics, minion wave rate, ease and reward of last hitting, god design, etc etc.