In defense of the Cleric. I just tonight finished my first full playthrough of the EA content, and I was able to manage it with only two characters in the party (me and Lae-zel, Gith Squad) as a Life Cleric.
Shadowheart actually has great utility if you know how to use stealth in combat. Obvs in bit open arenas where everyone has line of sight to everyone else this is somewhat moot but a character who dips around a corner and enters sneak is likely to be passed over by enemies on their turn, giving them an opportunity to heal or set up their next attack. She also makes a passable warrior who can do the melee work of pushing enemies off cliffs and delivering weapon special abilities like bleeding. Her lack of ranged options is kind of annoying, but I tend to load her up with grenades for the 2 turns she tends to spend out of melee range, and for dealing with enemies who are too thick for her rather meagre dps to be a big help with.
It's true that Clerics don't make great DPS characters, but I've found that the strategy of laying on DPS and hoping the enemy dies before you do really starts to break down after the goblin camp arc, when enemies start getting thicker and stronger at an alarming rate. That's where Clerics really shine, I feel, which means they ought to continue to shine as more content comes out.
