Hate has been my most used melee across all my playtime. Strongly dislike the incarnon self stagger. Feels about as useful as having a meme riven on a launcher that shoots backwards.
The projectile stops when it hits an enemy and then explodes a moment later. Angling camera higher helps a bit, but unless you're always missing enemies with the explosive, it'll still knock you down pretty often.
You do block (with your melee weapon) the explosion automatically if it's within 60 degrees of your crosshair, but to make use of that you have to be pretty deliberate in your movement and aiming.
