I'm shamelesdsly bumping this thread again for the devs in the light of Gamescon 2012... will our NPC Path Companions be in 2.0? I seriously miss mine and have not been able to use her in anything ever since I completed the Main scenario quests last year (I have the witty female Lalafell Shantotto build)

So will they be in 2.0? And if so, how do we get them back? Will they be more involved in the storyline or relevant sidequests? And will we be able to level them up just as the Fellow system in FFXI?