If I were forced to agree to make a change to Bastion, this would be it…
I dont recall the Devs specifically discussing the range of attacks and cannot find anything specific about it in @AndrewTilley Community Guide either… so Nearby is very vague… but considering weapons all have a “Range” value… it seems logical to me that Bastion shouldnt really have a range much larger than that of 4 or 5 (3 is the farthest I can find on a Spear) to be within Melee range… there are some skills that extend range etc, so maybe Bastion was designed to take those into account too… hence the Nearby…
Honestly… I hate to admit it, but they should probably make this change to Bastion… BUT please for the love of all things unholy if they do that, then they need to boost other items else we just lose a good item and get no other benefit…
I would even like a Bastion “clone” for 100% block against “Far away attacks”… 