Quote Originally Posted by Ooshima View Post
Not sure how it would eventually play out in the future about BRDs, because one of my friend's group cleared T13 weeks ago without a BRD.
Yea. BRD isn't needed, but Ballad can certainly be a useful tool for extending pulls during progression. Helps the healers be able to spam heals when the tanks and them don't know the timing for the damage spikes yet.

However, I disagree with the other poster. BRD is not mandatory if you bring melee. Paeon isn't mandatory. Proper TP management is mandatory. And the OP mentioned having a NIN. That certainly helps the MNK a lot. More than Paeon would. The NIN however will need to know how to ramp things up and slow it down to maximize their damage dealt with their finite TP supply. It's the same sort of things a SMN needs to do. SMNs don't get Ballad every time they get low.