I want a ranged Heart Bomb. If it can toss out the healing heart waves that a Love Puppy emanates, that would be all the better. However, I do admit it would take up a bit much in the weapon slot; perhaps it could do some kind of weak damage on the side?

Actually, healing bombs are another rather viable way to implement it - a bomb that lays down a healing AoE similar to the one that the healer gremlins deploy in T3.

I think healing is well-balanced in the game, it's very much like old-school arcade action titles, and makes you really value your life.

The "problem" is that dying is expensive; this is a problem for people who don't want to spend money on a "free" game, and it's meticulously balanced to be bearable while still all-too-tempting to pay the CE to revive.

I'd like to see healing stuff, but you're talking about more than gameplay here; it's the fundamental economic model for the game. Perhaps having really tough minibosses which give [non-tradeable] minor mist tanks (or tokens to buy them) would be a good way to address the issue of continued momentum in-game. That way, dives could still go on, but Three Rings doesn't give up it's main method of compensation.

Other healing items are possible, like a non-damage weapon that very slowly adds life when you charge it, which wouldn't give enough to destabilize the game. But then would it be fun? You'd just stand around and wait. The game is great for its breakneck pace and risk of losing everything.

Spoken like people who have never SEEN Firestorm Citadel.

Let me know when you start fighting 3 Trojans, 20 odd Flame Zombies on floors make a spikes and flame vents.

Where the Fire dot does 3 bars of HP a tick, enemies hit for 6-7 bars of HP on their own and almost every last one of them plus 2/3rd of the traps have a 75% chance to inflict you with fire.

I think a Healing Bomb would be fine, and Balanced, so long as it is a heal over time and not burst healing.

I would mainly question targeting on such items.

If it is a wand/gun type of weapon, does it fire THROUGH enemies? Or do enemy bodies block the shot, making it useless? Or (worst case) if you hit an enemy does it heal the enemy?

The bomb idea is pretty nice. Same question about "Does it heal enemies," but then it becomes a worthwhile weapon for solo play as you can heal yourself with a bomb, but not with a gun.

Though with absolutely no penalty to "topping off" between each fight, it would mean that no encounter matters at all anymore unless you are being swarmed by many monsters. So it would require that dungeons be re-formatted to contain a lot more enemies to keep you constantly fighting, or some restriction on the weapon which makes it impossible to use outside of battle.

In light of the "Can't use it outside of battle" approach, you could maybe have a gun who has a charge ability of "heals allies near blast area" Then you are more limited in what healing you can accomplish, as you need a target to blast the bullet against, and your allies have to be clustered around that target. (Can still heal outside of battle as long as you locate some blocks to destroy)

If more healing options would be introduced the game will be much too easier in my opinion.

So far I end up T2 with five to seven UNUSED health super capsules that I bring with me all way long for nothing (I'm not allowed to enter Emberlight yet). I'm equiped with Super Blaster, Magnus, Wise Owlite Shield, Elemental Hood and Sunset Duster so I don't consider myself some Gear God. I guess that better equipped player will have even less need for health capsules.

I know that healing is great thing because I've also been always playing Cleric types ever since 1993. But this game really doesn't need weapons that could heal you indefinitely. What about a weapon that, when used to bash a bush, will make a chance for heart drop significantly increased?

Instead of a healing weapon, how about a healing shield?
Taking shield damage heals the player for small amounts, however, it breaks faster other shields of comparable levels. Just as the Swiftstrike trades defense for attack power, but worse. If you overdo the blocking, the shield will break and you can lose the health you just regained. Nick said there would never be a reliable source of healing, but an unreliable one might pique the devs' interest.