It's a good item:
- The holy version makes smaxed plague have essentially the same dps as maxed curare. Since the item has no phys scaling to get maximum benefit you would want to build with unholy influence rather than holy (pierce from euphoria, sIAs from rapture unnecessary, VoJ>VoR for holy in general) and stack ele damage and crushing blow instead of physical damage & deadly strike as the regular variant.
- The unholy version is actually the best in slot for dps on an endgame geared Blood Thorns build. What that means is there is no other weapon in the game for that build which will give you greater damage, but of course it's balanced by the fact that it gives no support stats and you will have lower defence & healing since it gives no bonus to skills.