FCoB class requirements?

[Arg0n]

However, if your melee never need paeon they are just bad.

#agree
I always have to play paeon one time.

Maybe it has a lack of good bards?!
However, in most groups a bard is needed. (Foe, Ballad, Paeon, and tons of daaaaaaaaaaaaaaamage!!)

[KitanaiKoneko]

Only if your group never needs paeon or ballad. However, if your melee never need paeon they are just bad.

What if you run 4 NIN?

[PetiteMalFleur]

What if you run 4 NIN?

Then there will be blood with every ninja drop.

[Ooshima]

Only if your group never needs paeon or ballad. However, if your melee never need paeon they are just bad.

If your group have at least 1 Ninja, and if you punch things hard and fast enough, you don't actually need Paeons on all turns of FCoB. Especially T12 and T13, there are enough break points to recover TP.

[PetiteMalFleur]

If your group have at least 1 Ninja, and if you punch things hard and fast enough, you don't actually need Paeons on all turns of FCoB. Especially T12 and T13, there are enough break points to recover TP.

Perhaps if their skill speed is low enough, so this is actually a gear dependant argument. Most groups require paeon at some point even with a ninja, including mine. However, my argument was why a bard's utility is just too good to forgo. Especially if it's in favor of taking a SMN instead. SMN will require ballad and having no bard will make them into dead weight halfway through the fight. (OP said he wants to bring two casters.)

Our bard has saved us from countless wipes helping us recover from avoidable deaths. Overall having one makes these turns so much more forgiving. There's a solid reason why they make up literally every group comp.

[KaerisKlyne]

The ideal set-up still seems to be PLD/WAR/BRD/SCH/WHM/MNK and then either BLM or SMN, and DRG or NIN. I'd prefer taking in BLM and DRG to avoid having to play extra ballads and because the DRG's buff to BRD dps is probably worth having. At the very least, it's the setup that's best worked for me in the few FCoB fights I've done before scheduling forced us to start looking for 2 new members.

[Illa]

I'm asking you if you are serious now. Dragon Kick is amazing for kicking down a peg, all those nasty magic based damaging abilities the bosses use in Fcob... I.e. Giga Flare, Nerve Cloud, Flames of Rebirth, Electric Burst, etc. That's just Dragon Kick... Can't forget about Mantra, which is also +20% raid wide healing potency increase! That is a massive amount of lee-way for healers on very tight healing encounters. Not to mention that an excellent monk should and would be doing roughly 100 more dps than a bard under all circumstances and with a dragoon, maybe--MAYBE 50-75 more than the bard. I wouldn't say a bard is needed, but if you are progressing, then you will suffer much without one. Double caster isn't bad either, but if you go double caster, you should bring a SMN, since they are excellent for progression / learning. I too find it difficult to believe that bards are an endangered species on your server, OP, but I don't play on Tonberry, so I wouldn't know.