Here's how I see it: Low impact, still a smaller magazine than many more popular handcannons, balanced against average-at-best stability, but good range, reasonable reload, and the DoT. I can see how the DoT is good for PvP, but I'm not really seeing the benefit in PvE. The AIs that do take cover should be one-shot by a handcannon anyway, and the ones that aren't one-shot don't really hide, so you're going to benefit more from fast follow up shots and mag size than from a non-stacking DoT. TDYK gets crowd control, zen moment, and send it, so Thorn only beats it on the DoT, which is not well suited to PvE. LHF has similar advantages. Fatebringer provides ultrafast reloads and firefly, which is really the best crowd-destroying upgrade in the game.