I got the shishkebab as a reward after completing out of the fire. I really liked the cool, compact new look of the blade from its FO3 cousin. But the damage stats disappoint me. For being a unique weapon, Its a very weak sword.

The base physical damage is 20 with the flame/energy damage being 13. The chinese officer's sword modded with an electrified/serrated blade does much more damage than this. I got a few melee perks which ups the damage of many of my melee weapons but on this weapon, it seems the perks have no effect. Is this a bug? Or did the devs really water down a spectacular melee weapon from the old game? I'm hoping for a legendary drop for this to see how it will compare.

Its not unique....can find legendary versions.

The normal version is meh. Even the legendary version aren't great. Grognak's Axe can't be missed, but still does more damage and has a legendary effect, and takes less points in VATS to use. It's why I nodded it to increase the damage a bit. Rockville Sligger still outclasses both of them, though, due to sheer amount of VATS attacks and damage it gets.