Hi.
Depending on your action and activities I think your setup should be built around it. Melee squigherder has quite a few options actually.
A few of the base points first.
When you are in Squig armor you get a whole new hotbar, make sure to set your hotbars and keybindings up for both ranged and melee. Kaboom, self-punt+pbaoe snare, ranged dots/debuffs and whatever else should have good natural keys assigned to them for easier acces on a "stance" class.
When you are in Squigarmor your Balistic stats are converted to str. Same goes for gear bonuses, ranged crit/power gets converted into melee versions. The only stat you
dont get converted is "Ranged strikethrough" so try to avoid this stat when you build a gear set-up based around mixing several sets.
Your renown skill points are not getting converted and neither is your potion/liniment. (im 98%sure on this one)
Playstyle, role & build:
Your class has the option to play with a pet, or without a pet. Play at ranged, but using the Squigarmor as a defensive cooldown to create distance or simply mitigate damage. Or in a hybrid trying to get the best of both worlds. Pick whatever you need and test your options out.
For Ranged squigherder you can play with a pet to get acces to the different buffs and pet-abilities. or you can play as a solo-herder with the 25%damage tactic on for sniping down squies.
For pure utility aoe-dps melee SH you can run without a pet, be tanky with TA tactic and still get high bonus armor while running a classcanon build focusing on damage output.
For higher singletarget accesability in melee you can run with a pet, and equip tactics to give both you and your pet some combined burst to help with the lack of singletarget burst.
For hybrid between bow and melee you can mix tactics, at the cost of flat 25% tactics but gaining the bonuses from pets. But this becomes a trade off where you gain some and loose some.
Most MSH will probably be running the no-pet aoedps build, super safe playstyle with 2 "get-out-of-jail" free cards in Kaboom and selfpunt. You still get high armor from Territorial Agrression tactic and you have a lot of mobility for a RDPS archtype with pounces, selfpunt and super-aoe punts. However roots and snares will stick on you as you are not a natural mdps archtype (focus mind M2 can help you here)
For scenario play I would advice looking more at hybrid-build, with Healdebuff and short cooldown on Squigarmor allowing you to dot, armordebuff and healdebuff from range and pouncing in to commit on your target while the debuffs are still up. This can be mixed with a pet build if you desire.
Personally in a smallman group ive been trying this rr70 build:
https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/c ... ,2996,5510 Mixed results, still testing the waters. Each tactic pickup can be debated, again I advice players to pick according to their activity + playstyle.
Gearing:
Be aware of what set-pieces have "dead"stats for your build. Autoattack speed is close to doing nothing if you rely on your Channeled abilities. Strikethrough is straight up doing nothing for you if you are purely in Squigarmor. Increased Range bonuses can be good for catching your targets with 10feet longer pounces, but is mostly for your bow attacks.
Some of the offensive bonuses and classic mixes would be:
Getting the 3% flat armor penetration on Vang Chest and pair it up with the 3%armor pen on Invader helmet. And then start building a mix set from there, picking the pieces with the least "dead stats" and getting the bonuses you want. Either going for one wounds bonus or purely going for the Balistic + Weaponskill bonuss from mixing 2-3-4 sets all together.
Running full sets on Melee squig seems to make you loose too many stat-points as many of the individuel pieces have "dead stats" or little use for a Melee squigherder.
(dis)Advantages of being melee as a ranged archtype:
As a ranged dps class you get a singletarget ranged detaunt. Melee classes get an aoe close-combat detaunt. This has pros and cons, be aware of it.
As a ranged dps archtype you dont get a snare-breaker. if you do get snared, that movementspeed slow will stick on you untill it is clensed or expire.
Ranged damagedealing classes do get the acces to Focused mind Morale 2. This removes current snares and makes you immune to disarms etc.
Where most MDPS classes have to commit to deal damage, you actually have the option to use your bow. It might not be too strong depending on your build but it is better than being an unguarded dps who cant go in and instantly die.
Someone with better understanding and experience on the class might be able to tell you more in depth. Best of luck