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The Breakdown

The Core Concept:

Rogues have always been high damage strikers. With the new SA rules, they really went to the next level, almost to Ranger status. But of course, we can't take advantage of that if we only attack once per round. That's where Riposte Strike comes in. A good at-will before the rules change, it became the staple rogue at-will after essentials came out. So how do we take advantage of such a powerful combination? By forcing the enemy to attack us. We do this by making attacking us the "best" option he has: the enemy can't shift away, and if it moves away it's going to take a Disheartening Strike and put it at a -4 penalty with Psychic Lock. It can attack our allies, but that triggers the Riposte thanks to Vigilant Justice Style. So what we end up with is a high damage Rogue that can truly lock down a single target for as long as he likes, and move on to a different target whenever he pleases, thanks to his powers not being the source of the lock down.

Your Role on the Battlefield:

This is an important aspect to discuss about this build. Our role is to remove pesky enemies/lock them down to allow our other enemies to succeed. In a sense, we combine a bit of Defender with our high damage from being a Striker to put out solid DPR numbers and help keep our allies safe. After all, the best condition to put on an enemy is the dead condition, and we can do that to a single target better than some Rangers even. Where a Rogue lacks in Nova compared to something like the Ranger, we make up for it in lock down capability and debuffs. Once we get an enemy in our sights, we don't quit until that enemy falls.

Part 1 - Single Target Damage:

This is how we kill our targets. And boy, are we good at that. Weapon Expertise, Weapon Focus, SA twice a round if we are attacked, double Riposte and Brutal Advantage all make this build extremely lethal to play. Our powers are deadly in their own right: if we can get both attacks from Riposte Strike to go off round after round, we reach some pretty solid DPR numbers. Visceral Strike gives us a save-ends stun, and Cagey Killer is absolutely lethal since we get CA against stunned targets. Our last daily power, Clever Riposte, is kept all the way from level 5 until 30, mainly because it's an encounter-long effect of extra damage when a target attacks you, which goes a long way in making you deal more damage. For encounter powers, Perfect Strike is beautiful when you hit all 3 defenses, Shimmering Blade is another avenue for out of turn attacks, and Tumbling Strike is a nice way to start the encounter off (and is a minor action).

Part 2 - Catch-22 Situation:

This is our means of helping the team succeed. Got a pesky enemy you want taken care of? Then send Shank Sinatra in and watch as the enemy is trapped and forced to eat attack after attack. Riposte Strike is one part of it: being able to attack an enemy for attacking you OR an ally goes a long way in giving the enemy poor choices. The main problem with the build before hand was stuffing shift + charge scenarios. With Gladiator Champion, we solve that and force the enemy to move away if it wants to attack our allies, triggering Heavy Blade Opportunity, which in turn will slow the enemy if you have CA and debuff with Disheartening Strike. Trying to hit you is futile: Raven Knight + Psychic Lock + Second Chance + Shadow Band makes that nearly impossible, and if you really don't want to be hit, throw in Disheartening Strike for good measure. Your primary setup should look like this:

xxx
xEx
xRDx

where R is you, D is your Defender, and E is the enemy. Now they eat 2 AoO for moving away, and eat a Riposte if they attack you or the Defender. That's some pretty heavy Catch-22.

Part 3 - Debuff/Durability:

I hate myself for it, but boy do I love Auspicious Birth. Using our Dex to determine our HP is outstanding. Coupled with Lifeblood armor, we start off battle with the equivalent of 200 HP, as much as a lot of Defenders, so that helps our overall survivability. Next we have debuffs. And we have a lot of them. Disheartening Strike is there right away for a -2 to hit, already making you harder to hit, and Psychic Lock comes later for another -2. We round it off with Raven Knight, making it a -6 to hit us if we use Disheartening Strike, and a -4 if we don't. If that weren't enough, the enemy is going to take an attack for attacking us, so that adds insult to injury. We also have a load of stunning powers to aid us: Cagey Killer, Perfect Strike, and Visceral Strike all stun, with 2 of the 3 being save ends. This is obviously strong for any character, but for a lock down build, this becomes crazy.

Part 4 - Item Independence:

More and more important with the new Essentials rules, this build is extremely item independent. The only item we really need for the current build is the Githyank Silver Bastard Sword, but if we were to take our Psychic Lock, even that isn't required. Basically any magic items work here, these are merely the (in my opinion) best choices.

Tactics

Lock 'em Down:

One of the major tactics this build employs, we love making targets attack us. No, we don't dominate the target or anything like that, but we make sure that the target has no good choices, and would rather attack us and not have to move than to move and try to attack an ally. The first lockdown mechanic we get is Vigilant Justice Style. It eliminates one of the better choices enemies had: attacking our allies. Now the enemy will take the same damage for attacking our ally than he would have for attacking us. Next we get Opportunistic Sneak Attack, so if an enemy tries to move away, they are slowed as long as we deal SA damage. That goes a long way in protecting our allies, but it really kicks off at level 16, when we get the ability to completely stuff shift attempts. Now the enemy has a couple of choices, all of which are bad:

Move Away and Attack an Ally/Charge: they draw an OA from us, which will usually be Disheartening Strike to really debuff the enemies attack. Our Disheartening Strike is also a bit more damaging than the second Riposte, so that isn't a good option.

Attack Us: With Raven Knight, Psychic Lock, Shadow Band and Disheartening Ambush, they're looking at a -8 to hit us, which will almost always result in a miss, and trigger the Riposte. Another poor choice.

Attack an Adjacent Ally: Maybe the best option, but typically the ally adjacent to you would be your Defender, so they likely either won't hit (Psychic Lock + Disheartening Ambush), or will hit and not do too much damage to our durable defender. Sometimes this isn't even an option for the enemy, so really there isn't a lot the enemy can do.

Debuff the Target:

The second part to our defense, we can debuff a target so they won't be hitting anything, and we can do it round after round. Psychic Lock is our #1 method of this, as a -2 to hit basically all the time can be extremely helpful in any situation. Disheartening Ambush can make our attacks Rattling, so another -2 there, so the enemy sits at -4 almost constantly. If the enemy attacks us, we have the Shadow Band and the Raven Knight's feature to make that a total of -8, which basically means they aren't going to hit.

Another aspect of our debuffing comes from our powers. A good portion of our powers stun (2 out of 3 for our Dailies, as well as Perfect Strike), and Dark Scythe can provide some weakening for a strong solo. Lastly, Disheartening Strike is there for some emergency Rattling just in case we can't get Disheartening Ambush off.

Damage Dealing:

We ARE still a Striker after all, so we need to be able to efficiently take out our target. That's where things like Weapon Expertise, Githzerai Blade Master, and Heavy Blade Mastery come in. Githzerai Blade Master gives us access to the Bastard Sword (which we can use thanks to Versatile Duelist), and bigger weapons = more damage. It also grants us more damage than Weapon Focus.

However, a lot of our damage dealing comes from our out-of-turn attacks. Getting the two attacks off from Riposte Strike already increases our DPR by a hefty margin, and other powers like Clever Riposte and Shimmering Blade allow us to deal very respectable damage out of turn. If your DM insists on never triggering an out of turn attack from you, your DPR might feel a little low, but that also means the enemy is basically useless to him.