Building up my bike, I used Deore XT 10-Speed Shadow+ with a matching Triple FD. By doing this, I was very limited to what I could use. I could have used the Dia Compe frictions but quickly tossed it out because I didn't want down tube shifters. This left me with 3 other options. Shimano trigger shifters, or MicroShift bar ends for mountain derailleurs. Ultimately, I chose the MicroShift which, IMHO, was probably the best decision for what I wanted. When I put them on, they worked flawlessly in both friction and indexed mode. I prefer indexed, but good to know I could switch if needed. If you were to want to go mountain 10 or 11 speed with STI shifters, the only option for that is Lindarets Tanpan which converts the index from the STI to match the derailleur. Heres the link if you're interested: http://www.lindarets.com/tanpan/

As far as the crank, I went with the triple 48-36-26 XT European Touring Model. I generally would have gone double, but figured a triple crank would work well for touring and bikepacking. My thought is if I wanted to go bikepacking, I could easily modify the bike to a 1x10 drivetrain and swap out the tires.

But then again, diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks.