I like your healing window idea but its probably gonna be hard for the developer to implement and the players to keep track. I think another possibility to healing method is as opposed to an instantaneous effect it could be over a duration of time. Kind of like a slow regen. Similar to popping potions in Diablo. Example: A bomb set to heal 3 bars @ 20 secs a bar. As opposed to stand in AoE and automatically heal 3 bars. You want insta-heal pop a pill or capsule. So in the thick of battle, although you are getting healed you still have a high chance of dying.

in addition, perhaps additional balancing could include things like being able to heal others only and not yourself for things like gun and "wand". that would mean the "healer" cannot be a sideline character per say or the act of healing causes the mob within range to aggro the healer (deem target as high priority like we do with the healer gremlin and butterflies)

i left out bomb because perhaps with bomb you can heal yourself but it will heal indiscrimately which means you have the potential to heal enemy characters. However that being said if we were to heal enemies of a certain class (ie Undead) it will do adverse effect and damage them instead

then we can fine tune things like heal amount, charge time, weapon combo and damage

about the FSC comment, I think healing would not change the status quo of the game difficulty much but add another depth of strategy and teamwork. Lots of games have healing but that doesn't mean you cannot die and lose. Like i said there are some potential there.

i do believe your point is valid as a personal preference to RPGs I like to play theif class ("if you can't hit me, you can't kill me" principle). However playing any game long enough unless you are very experienced or an uber-player. chances are you are going to get hit, and often. But being an average player and playing enough times I noticed there is a need for it.

I've been doing JK runs all week (as far as ME can get me [been using it as a limiter to how much gaming I play each day]). I've rubbed elbows with ppl who just graduated to 2* to expereienced players who know what they are doing with 5* equipment. At the end of the day I do see shrinking life bars, some faster than others.

I think with the slow regen idea as opposed to a "healer" it would play out more like a "protracter" to draw out the battle a little longer as opposed to having everyone die at once. This would also deter daystars concern of ppl healing post battle to full. Depending on life bar and amount damage sustained if worse comes to worse would you waste about 10 mins to slowly heal everyone. My only concern I think most ppl would get impatient, some more than other and urge ppl to soldier on or others would just rage-quit.