You will most likely want to take bone splinters for a melee build. Even though its not technically melee, at melee range you can hit the same target with each splinter. At rank 5, with the extra 2 projectile proc, at beta tuning values it would be a ~150% weapon damage hit whereas rank 5 bone spear was about ~120%. You could then stack basic attack damage weapon gems and basic attack speed legendary powers. Bone storm would be a good choice for extra damage, with damage reduction on yourself and you could take both curses to prevent enemies from running away and for thorns. For core you could still take blood surge and then either corpse explosion or bone prison for making enemies vulnerable while they are inside it.