Reason why it's crap is because it's bugged.
I can craft a much better weapon whenever I want and make it have unlimited charges too.
That weapon needs to get both fixed and buffed ASAP!

Kind of a long post for just one weapon, but if anyone is interested in my opinion on a largely misunderstood weapon please continue.

For a long time I've been wanting to see what the Ebony Blade was like, and for a while all I could read about it was how terrible it was. But now that it's in my hands it reminds me a lot of the Chaos Blade from Dark Souls, which offered decent damage with good stat scaling but took away health from the player with each strike. Now obviously the Ebony Blade gives you health with each strike, but there are a lot of reasons why I think this is a weapon more for hard core players than beginners or casuals. One being its odd perk and skill relationships - It raises Two-Handed but scales with One-Handed, and is effected by perks from both trees. It makes the weapon good for players that want to get their Two-Handed skill up while having a high One-Handed skill, but not all too great for players who specifically want to use 2H weapons. Its main problem is its ridiculously low damage. Even with a high One-Handed skill, this weapon is relatively poor in the base damage area. Its worst con is the fact that you have to murder friendly NPCs in order to give the weapon better damage [racking up a large bounty if you aren't the sneaky type], and sometimes the base damage will not raise due to a bug in the game. For a level twenty weapon it has a lot of bad qualities, but I believe the good outweigh the bad. For example, it has the fastest swing speed of any weapon, allowing for some major DPS. Some of you may think the Longhammer beats it in DPS as well as the ability to be upgraded/enchanted, but take into account the Ebony Blade's best quality: It never runs out of charge. Even at its lowest form the Ebony Blade can dish out damage at high speeds as it constantly gives the wielder health. At its highest form, it is capable of keeping the player at full health in some of the toughest fights. As long as the enemy lives, the player will not be in danger.

I hope this encourages some of you to try it out. It may not be great in the beginning, but in my opinion it is well worth the grind.

Thanks for reading, please share your thoughts below. If I missed anything just let me know and I'll edit my post with credit to you.

It's supposed to be crappy, remember? Why on earth would the Daedric prince of deceit give you a free weapon with no strings attached? You're supposed to kill your friends to try and make it better, because that is Mephala's plan.

This answer is a cop-out. It's so quirky that the only thing it would be good for is home decoration... except it's bugged and won't stay in a weapon rack? Or is that part of Mephala's plan as well? To drive me crazy by bumping the sword off the rack and onto the floor every time I come home? Wow. Pure genius.

It's supposed to be crappy, remember? Why on earth would the Daedric prince of deceit give you a free weapon with no strings attached? You're supposed to kill your friends to try and make it better, because that is Mephala's plan.

Yep. Mephala's plan is to spread misery and make your day miserable.

Most likely it was put in by the devs as a joke with a nice story behind it.

The problem with Wuthraad is that it cannot be improved through smithing (bug).

I do as the OP suggests. I level 2H up by using it, and it's nice because it's only 10 lbs. As far as actually doing some damage though? It svcks rather badly..

I remember when I was helping take an Imperial Fort for the Stormcloaks and all I used was Ebony Blade. True I killed most of them, but it took sooooo long to do so! If it actually got a substantial DMG increase it would actually be worthy of a 2H char.

Yes, I am already feeling the misery of Mephala. I killed someone who gave me a simple quest and later I realized that she was essential to becoming Thane of The Rift.

Curse you, Mephala. Curse you!