Revealing Strike

Revealing Strike is a Combat rogue ability, available at level 20. It applies a debuff which enhances the effectiveness of other rogue abilities against the target.

Usage
Revealing Strike deals less damage per energy than Sinister Strike, so its primary use is to apply its debuff, which increases the combo point generation of Sinister Strike; the damage of Eviscerate, Rupture, and Crimson Tempest; and the duration of Kidney Shot. In almost all cases, combat-specced rogues should make sure the Revealing Strike debuff is up on their target before using any of these abilities, and remember to reapply it on new targets.

Revealing Strike is irrelevant to Slice and Dice, Recuperate, Fan of Knives, and a number of other abilities. Therefore, rogues should delay using Revealing Strike if they plan to use any of those next, since the debuff will be wasted while performing them. White damage is also unaffected by it, so rogues will gain some benefit by energy pooling before resuming a Revealing and Sinister Strike rotation, allowing the debuff to last through the highest possible number of Sinister Strikes and offensive finishers.

Note that the combo point generation aspect of Revealing Strike is based on random chance, so rogues may see strings of good or bad luck when using Sinister Strike on debuffed targets. In terms of combo point generation, having the debuff up on a Sinister Strike is only "worth" 1/5 of a Strike on average, or 10 energy - a significant amount in the long run, but not a disaster if missed a few times. Finishing moves, on the other hand, gain a much larger and reliable advantage, so rogues should never use a finisher on a target without the debuff, unless the finisher alone is enough to kill the target outright.

When using Sinister Strike to finish off a target that will die very quickly, it may not be worthwhile to use Revealing Strike, since most of the debuff's duration would go unused, and the chance that a single or even a couple strikes would have generated points is low. Revealing Strike may also be better ignored when using Crimson Tempest, depending on the number and priority of targets, since only the debuffed target would be affected.