Hello! I have a 9th level archer I am using in an upcoming campaign, and I am taking a feat, but I can't decide between the sharpshooter feat or the piercer feat (from TCoE). What do you think? I have max Dexterity, the archery fighting style, and a +1 longbow for a total of +12 to hit.
It depends. If you are fighting in long tunnels with your melee troops between you and the enemy, or regularly working at range beyond the short range of your weapon, then Sharpshooter is best.
Hello! I have a 9th level archer I am using in an upcoming campaign, and I am taking a feat, but I can't decide between the sharpshooter feat or the piercer feat (from TCoE). What do you think? I have max Dexterity, the archery fighting style, and a +1 longbow for a total of +12 to hit.
I'd say sharpshooter. The power attack will outdo the bonus damage from the crit bonus and is more controllable. The ability to ignore all but total cover should increase your damage by increasing your hit percentage, but YMMV depending on how your DM deals with cover and should account for the rerolled damage. The extra range is just icing.
Piercer may be worth picking up for your next ASI after sharpshooter unless you find yourself needed more defensive feats for hitpoints or saving throws.
the str point may be a waste, but rerolling damage on a die and an extra die when you crit will also increase your damage. It will also increase your effectiveness with other piercing weapons that you may use in melee if you find yourself having to resort to that. Under water adventures, perhaps very close quarter combat where enemies seem to always be within 5 feet of you giving disadvantage on your ranged attacks. You may even get a cool melee piercing weapon later.
If you already have max DEX sharpshooter is a better feat. Piercer is a "half-trait" with a +1 to one atribute for a reason. It may be OK for a Rogue archer because with sneak attack you'd be rolling a lot of damage dice and you'd be rerolling ones every turn, and with bonus-action hiding or steady aim you'd have adavantage every turn, so double critical chance (triple with Elven Accuracy).
Piercer may be worth picking up for your next ASI after sharpshooter unless you find yourself needed more defensive feats for hitpoints or saving throws.
the str point may be a waste, but rerolling damage on a die and an extra die when you crit will also increase your damage. It will also increase your effectiveness with other piercing weapons that you may use in melee if you find yourself having to resort to that. Under water adventures, perhaps very close quarter combat where enemies seem to always be within 5 feet of you giving disadvantage on your ranged attacks. You may even get a cool melee piercing weapon later.
Being able to re-roll on a d6 amounts to an additional 0.75 average damage (4.25 vs 3.5). That's not nothing but there are far better feats. It could be a viable choice if he was rounding out an odd stat. Sans that, there are always far better options. Alert, Lucky, Mobile, and others.
Piercer may be worth picking up for your next ASI after sharpshooter unless you find yourself needed more defensive feats for hitpoints or saving throws.
the str point may be a waste, but rerolling damage on a die and an extra die when you crit will also increase your damage. It will also increase your effectiveness with other piercing weapons that you may use in melee if you find yourself having to resort to that. Under water adventures, perhaps very close quarter combat where enemies seem to always be within 5 feet of you giving disadvantage on your ranged attacks. You may even get a cool melee piercing weapon later.
Being able to re-roll on a d6 amounts to an additional 0.75 average damage (4.25 vs 3.5). That's not nothing but there are far better feats. It could be a viable choice if he was rounding out an odd stat. Sans that, there are always far better options. Alert, Lucky, Mobile, and others.
Longbow, so it's a reroll on a d8. Depending on what numbers you reroll on, you're going from 4.5 and increasing it by either .4375, .75, or .9375 depending on whether you reroll only 1s, reroll 1s and 2s, or reroll 3s and lower. The potential gain probably isn't significant enough on 3s, especially since you have to keep the new roll and you've got a 25% chance to roll lower than the 3.
It is better on crit Fisher builds and when you need to even out the odd stat. Otherwise, it's a weaker version of Savage Attacker (since Savage Attacker can keep either total) that can be used on ranged weapons but is limited to piercing weapons. It is also better on a fighter with multiple attacks or a rogue with lots of sneak attack dice, but then it's just a weaker version of Great Weapon Fighting Style, since you can only reroll 1 die instead of all of the dice.
However, if you are switching between melee and ranged, it does gain extra value in comparison to sharpshooter, since sharpshooter doesn't affect melee weapons at all. Whether that extra value is enough to merit the choice depends on how often you would be using each type of weapon and a little bit on personal preference. Then you have to weigh the opportunity cost, what could I have taken instead? This is a little more subjective, since you will place a different weight of value on it than I would, and the weight may or may not have a strong basis in math. That's typically the weighting that is used for opportunity cost on the forums, since it is the most objective form available. However, it doesn't factor in thematic preferences or any other preferences that are based on subjective thought.
It may also be worth noting that like savage attacker, the piercer feats damage re-roll is “once per turn” so it can be used on another creatures turn if a reaction attack is available, however frequently that may be if features are used to make reaction attacks more likely.
It may also be worth noting that like savage attacker, the piercer feats damage re-roll is “once per turn” so it can be used on another creatures turn if a reaction attack is available, however frequently that may be if features are used to make reaction attacks more likely.
True, so definitely better with PAM or a level 18 Cavalier. Again, Rogue sneak attack benefits from this. I guess it should be said that while multiple attacks per turn benefit from the ability to apply this on a turn by turn basis, classes with a single attack do benefit from a damage consistency standpoint, since that one attack gets two chances to not get a low number. Rogue probably is the best of both worlds, since you only have one attack but have lots of dice to apply it to. This is accomplished best by attacking with a light crossbow or a rapier, ideally with advantage (higher chance to crit, since sneak attack can be applied in other ways sometimes). Then you can apply the piercer to the d8s if they fall below the threshold of lower than 2, otherwise one of the d6s from sneak attack. Ideally, the rogue would have an attack with piercing damage for OAs, which would have to be an unarmed strike if you are playing ranged and that would limit the number of OAs that you could use.
Piercer may be worth picking up for your next ASI after sharpshooter unless you find yourself needed more defensive feats for hitpoints or saving throws.
the str point may be a waste, but rerolling damage on a die and an extra die when you crit will also increase your damage. It will also increase your effectiveness with other piercing weapons that you may use in melee if you find yourself having to resort to that. Under water adventures, perhaps very close quarter combat where enemies seem to always be within 5 feet of you giving disadvantage on your ranged attacks. You may even get a cool melee piercing weapon later.
Being able to re-roll on a d6 amounts to an additional 0.75 average damage (4.25 vs 3.5). That's not nothing but there are far better feats. It could be a viable choice if he was rounding out an odd stat. Sans that, there are always far better options. Alert, Lucky, Mobile, and others.
Longbow, so it's a reroll on a d8. Depending on what numbers you reroll on, you're going from 4.5 and increasing it by either .4375, .75, or .9375 depending on whether you reroll only 1s, reroll 1s and 2s, or reroll 3s and lower. The potential gain probably isn't significant enough on 3s, especially since you have to keep the new roll and you've got a 25% chance to roll lower than the 3.
It is better on crit Fisher builds and when you need to even out the odd stat. Otherwise, it's a weaker version of Savage Attacker (since Savage Attacker can keep either total) that can be used on ranged weapons but is limited to piercing weapons. It is also better on a fighter with multiple attacks or a rogue with lots of sneak attack dice, but then it's just a weaker version of Great Weapon Fighting Style, since you can only reroll 1 die instead of all of the dice.
However, if you are switching between melee and ranged, it does gain extra value in comparison to sharpshooter, since sharpshooter doesn't affect melee weapons at all. Whether that extra value is enough to merit the choice depends on how often you would be using each type of weapon and a little bit on personal preference. Then you have to weigh the opportunity cost, what could I have taken instead? This is a little more subjective, since you will place a different weight of value on it than I would, and the weight may or may not have a strong basis in math. That's typically the weighting that is used for opportunity cost on the forums, since it is the most objective form available. However, it doesn't factor in thematic preferences or any other preferences that are based on subjective thought.
Being able to re-roll a d8 amounts to an average increase of 1 damage. And that's if you re-roll optimally, re-rolling 1 through 4 (since the average is 4.5). And you can only do that once per turn, so you're literally adding an average of 1 damage per turn.
You get to roll one additional die when you crit, so that amounts to 4.5 extra damage on a crit, which happens 5% of your attacks.
I can easily come up with 10-15 Feats that would be better options.
Piercer may be worth picking up for your next ASI after sharpshooter unless you find yourself needed more defensive feats for hitpoints or saving throws.
the str point may be a waste, but rerolling damage on a die and an extra die when you crit will also increase your damage. It will also increase your effectiveness with other piercing weapons that you may use in melee if you find yourself having to resort to that. Under water adventures, perhaps very close quarter combat where enemies seem to always be within 5 feet of you giving disadvantage on your ranged attacks. You may even get a cool melee piercing weapon later.
Being able to re-roll on a d6 amounts to an additional 0.75 average damage (4.25 vs 3.5). That's not nothing but there are far better feats. It could be a viable choice if he was rounding out an odd stat. Sans that, there are always far better options. Alert, Lucky, Mobile, and others.
Longbow, so it's a reroll on a d8. Depending on what numbers you reroll on, you're going from 4.5 and increasing it by either .4375, .75, or .9375 depending on whether you reroll only 1s, reroll 1s and 2s, or reroll 3s and lower. The potential gain probably isn't significant enough on 3s, especially since you have to keep the new roll and you've got a 25% chance to roll lower than the 3.
It is better on crit Fisher builds and when you need to even out the odd stat. Otherwise, it's a weaker version of Savage Attacker (since Savage Attacker can keep either total) that can be used on ranged weapons but is limited to piercing weapons. It is also better on a fighter with multiple attacks or a rogue with lots of sneak attack dice, but then it's just a weaker version of Great Weapon Fighting Style, since you can only reroll 1 die instead of all of the dice.
However, if you are switching between melee and ranged, it does gain extra value in comparison to sharpshooter, since sharpshooter doesn't affect melee weapons at all. Whether that extra value is enough to merit the choice depends on how often you would be using each type of weapon and a little bit on personal preference. Then you have to weigh the opportunity cost, what could I have taken instead? This is a little more subjective, since you will place a different weight of value on it than I would, and the weight may or may not have a strong basis in math. That's typically the weighting that is used for opportunity cost on the forums, since it is the most objective form available. However, it doesn't factor in thematic preferences or any other preferences that are based on subjective thought.
Being able to re-roll a d8 amounts to an average increase of 1 damage. And that's if you re-roll optimally, re-rolling 1 through 4 (since the average is 4.5). And you can only do that once per turn, so you're literally adding an average of 1 damage per turn.
You get to roll one additional die when you crit, so that amounts to 4.5 extra damage on a crit, which happens 5% of your attacks.
I can easily come up with 10-15 Feats that would be better options.
No doubt that there are better options mechanically.
The difference between rerolling 2s and rerolling is only an expected difference of .25 damage. Considering that you have a 37.5% chance of rolling lower than, you have to consider whether it's worth it. The difference between 3s and 4s is less, only an expected difference of .0625 points of damage.
As for the crits, you can get a better crit rate via champion or hexblade, and rolling with advantage also helps. Getting a second feat for Elven Accuracy can increase the crit rate as well.
That said, it's likely only worth it for thematic reasons from a strict math view. I want presenting it as a great option, just as a way to optimize it if you decided that you wanted to take it.
No doubt that there are better options mechanically.
The difference between rerolling 2s and rerolling is only an expected difference of .25 damage. Considering that you have a 37.5% chance of rolling lower than, you have to consider whether it's worth it. The difference between 3s and 4s is less, only an expected difference of .0625 points of damage.
As for the crits, you can get a better crit rate via champion or hexblade, and rolling with advantage also helps. Getting a second feat for Elven Accuracy can increase the crit rate as well.
That said, it's likely only worth it for thematic reasons from a strict math view. I want presenting it as a great option, just as a way to optimize it if you decided that you wanted to take it.
How something fits thematically is a matter of personal taste. The effects of Piercer is strictly mechanical, though. I kind of obsessively deep dive into the game mechanics, crunching numbers and such. The Peircer feat essentially boils down to being a means to do more damage. It's just not very much at all. It sounds a lot better when you read it than when you calculate it.
No doubt that there are better options mechanically.
The difference between rerolling 2s and rerolling is only an expected difference of .25 damage. Considering that you have a 37.5% chance of rolling lower than, you have to consider whether it's worth it. The difference between 3s and 4s is less, only an expected difference of .0625 points of damage.
As for the crits, you can get a better crit rate via champion or hexblade, and rolling with advantage also helps. Getting a second feat for Elven Accuracy can increase the crit rate as well.
That said, it's likely only worth it for thematic reasons from a strict math view. I want presenting it as a great option, just as a way to optimize it if you decided that you wanted to take it.
How something fits thematically is a matter of personal taste. The effects of Piercer is strictly mechanical, though. I kind of obsessively deep dive into the game mechanics, crunching numbers and such. The Peircer feat essentially boils down to being a means to do more damage. It's just not very much at all. It sounds a lot better when you read it than when you calculate it.
The thematics would be around piercing damage in both ranged and melee range. It would make a better secondary or tertiary feat. I've also said that it is inferior mechanically, that taking it would be a matter of personal taste, and agreed that there are many better feats. It's not like crusher or slasher where it has a control angle. I've mentioned that it is worse (at least in some ways) than Great Weapon Fighting Style and Savage Attacker Feat, neither of which is a great choice mechanically, but it also has better aspects than both of those. I've mentioned that I would choose Sharpshooter as far as the OP is concerned. Pretty much everything that I've said otherwise was what I would do if I was to try to maximize it. Hopefully, that will help people that aren't looking at it as a crucial part of the build to consider other options, but those who absolutely want the feat to consider why they would want to take it.
For most piercing builds, sharpshooter or PAM will simply be superior as a primary feat. That leaves dual wielding builds, rapier builds, and switch hitter builds.... I don't think anything else would qualify, but I could be wrong. Considering the analysis that I had about maximizing piercer feat leading to a rogue and rogues being primarily archers... it's just not a good option. Maybe a Ranger that also has spells with piercing damage that aren't part of the attack?
TLDR Piercer isn't the worst feat, but it's certainly not among the best and it's focus on damage doesn't give it much room to fit among the competition. Therefore, if you choose to take it, know why you are taking it so that you won't be disappointed.
I think piercer has its place. It’s not nearly as good as sharpshooter when taken on a class that has the extra attack feature, since sharpshooter benefits can potentially be used fully on every attack made.
after looking at some number crunching though it may be comparable to sharpshooter on a rogue who uses two weapon fighting or somehow gains another kind of bonus action attack with a piercing weapon, as long as the +1 to dex or strength increases the modifier.
Assuming a roughly 65% accuracy with a normal roll before the feat is taken, the piercer feat would give an increase to damage by accuracy increase and an additional point of damage modifier. If your rogue has disadvantage(which sucks real bad for a rogue cause no sneak attack) the damage is higher with the piercer feat. If the rogue has a single roll on the attack the accuracy and static damage increase slightly edges out sharpshooter. Advantage gives the edge to sharpshooter.
if your rogue has a hard time gaining advantage due to the environment, DM fiat, or potentially a lack of ally teamwork, piercer may be better for you. But basically only if your a rogue, have an odd stat modifier, and you don’t get advantage often.
It's not hard to be a crit-fishing Elven bow user, since you can dump pretty much every stat other than Dexterity. Being able to roll an extra d8 on Longbow crits, on top of the round-to-round ability to reroll a 1 or a 2, wouldn't feel bad once you've checked off picking up Sharpshooter, Elven Accuracy, and taking your Dex to 19. Really, Sharpshooter before Dex is at 20 is usually too big of a to-hit malus even with Archery fighting style's +2, and the fact that Piercer can be part of you getting to 20 is a potential reason why you might pick it up first, even though you care about it less than Sharpshooter in a final build. Conventional build wisdom requires only one half-stat feat to take your starting 17 up to 20 at level 8 after a half-stat feat and a +2 ASI... but I can picture an Elven fighter or rogue that takes Piercer, Skill Expert, and Elven Accuracy to get there instead, leaving Sharpshooter for Tier 3 play at 12 where it rightly belongs.
It's not hard to be a crit-fishing Elven bow user, since you can dump pretty much every stat other than Dexterity. Being able to roll an extra d8 on Longbow crits, on top of the round-to-round ability to reroll a 1 or a 2, wouldn't feel bad once you've checked off picking up Sharpshooter, Elven Accuracy, and taking your Dex to 19. Really, Sharpshooter before Dex is at 20 is usually too big of a to-hit malus even with Archery fighting style's +2, and the fact that Piercer can be part of you getting to 20 is a potential reason why you might pick it up first, even though you care about it less than Sharpshooter in a final build. Conventional build wisdom requires only one half-stat feat to take your starting 17 up to 20 at level 8 after a half-stat feat and a +2 ASI... but I can picture an Elven fighter or rogue that takes Piercer, Skill Expert, and Elven Accuracy to get there instead, leaving Sharpshooter for Tier 3 play at 12 where it rightly belongs.
If you have a build where Elven Accuracy is being triggered frequently, then Sharpshooter isn't nearly as big of a challenge even without archery fighting style. And not all of Sharpshooter's damage increase comes from the power attack as it makes your accuracy better in extreme circumstances. That's not to say that most of the damage isn't from the power attack, just that options open up when you don't have to worry about long range disadvantage or partial cover.
However, the build that you mention falls in line wonderfully with one of the builds that thematically wants piercer feat. You might be able to get more from another feat mechanically, but it just doesn't fit the way piercer would, even if piercer is just adding damage.
Hello! I have a 9th level archer I am using in an upcoming campaign, and I am taking a feat, but I can't decide between the sharpshooter feat or the piercer feat (from TCoE). What do you think? I have max Dexterity, the archery fighting style, and a +1 longbow for a total of +12 to hit.
It depends. If you are fighting in long tunnels with your melee troops between you and the enemy, or regularly working at range beyond the short range of your weapon, then Sharpshooter is best.
You can’t benefit from increasing your dexterity so I’d go with Sharpshooter.
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I'd say sharpshooter. The power attack will outdo the bonus damage from the crit bonus and is more controllable. The ability to ignore all but total cover should increase your damage by increasing your hit percentage, but YMMV depending on how your DM deals with cover and should account for the rerolled damage. The extra range is just icing.
Unquestionably Sharpshooter.
OK, thank you, I will take sharpshooter.
Piercer may be worth picking up for your next ASI after sharpshooter unless you find yourself needed more defensive feats for hitpoints or saving throws.
the str point may be a waste, but rerolling damage on a die and an extra die when you crit will also increase your damage. It will also increase your effectiveness with other piercing weapons that you may use in melee if you find yourself having to resort to that. Under water adventures, perhaps very close quarter combat where enemies seem to always be within 5 feet of you giving disadvantage on your ranged attacks. You may even get a cool melee piercing weapon later.
If you already have max DEX sharpshooter is a better feat. Piercer is a "half-trait" with a +1 to one atribute for a reason. It may be OK for a Rogue archer because with sneak attack you'd be rolling a lot of damage dice and you'd be rerolling ones every turn, and with bonus-action hiding or steady aim you'd have adavantage every turn, so double critical chance (triple with Elven Accuracy).
Being able to re-roll on a d6 amounts to an additional 0.75 average damage (4.25 vs 3.5). That's not nothing but there are far better feats. It could be a viable choice if he was rounding out an odd stat. Sans that, there are always far better options. Alert, Lucky, Mobile, and others.
Longbow, so it's a reroll on a d8. Depending on what numbers you reroll on, you're going from 4.5 and increasing it by either .4375, .75, or .9375 depending on whether you reroll only 1s, reroll 1s and 2s, or reroll 3s and lower. The potential gain probably isn't significant enough on 3s, especially since you have to keep the new roll and you've got a 25% chance to roll lower than the 3.
It is better on crit Fisher builds and when you need to even out the odd stat. Otherwise, it's a weaker version of Savage Attacker (since Savage Attacker can keep either total) that can be used on ranged weapons but is limited to piercing weapons. It is also better on a fighter with multiple attacks or a rogue with lots of sneak attack dice, but then it's just a weaker version of Great Weapon Fighting Style, since you can only reroll 1 die instead of all of the dice.
However, if you are switching between melee and ranged, it does gain extra value in comparison to sharpshooter, since sharpshooter doesn't affect melee weapons at all. Whether that extra value is enough to merit the choice depends on how often you would be using each type of weapon and a little bit on personal preference. Then you have to weigh the opportunity cost, what could I have taken instead? This is a little more subjective, since you will place a different weight of value on it than I would, and the weight may or may not have a strong basis in math. That's typically the weighting that is used for opportunity cost on the forums, since it is the most objective form available. However, it doesn't factor in thematic preferences or any other preferences that are based on subjective thought.
It may also be worth noting that like savage attacker, the piercer feats damage re-roll is “once per turn” so it can be used on another creatures turn if a reaction attack is available, however frequently that may be if features are used to make reaction attacks more likely.
True, so definitely better with PAM or a level 18 Cavalier. Again, Rogue sneak attack benefits from this. I guess it should be said that while multiple attacks per turn benefit from the ability to apply this on a turn by turn basis, classes with a single attack do benefit from a damage consistency standpoint, since that one attack gets two chances to not get a low number. Rogue probably is the best of both worlds, since you only have one attack but have lots of dice to apply it to. This is accomplished best by attacking with a light crossbow or a rapier, ideally with advantage (higher chance to crit, since sneak attack can be applied in other ways sometimes). Then you can apply the piercer to the d8s if they fall below the threshold of lower than 2, otherwise one of the d6s from sneak attack. Ideally, the rogue would have an attack with piercing damage for OAs, which would have to be an unarmed strike if you are playing ranged and that would limit the number of OAs that you could use.
Being able to re-roll a d8 amounts to an average increase of 1 damage. And that's if you re-roll optimally, re-rolling 1 through 4 (since the average is 4.5). And you can only do that once per turn, so you're literally adding an average of 1 damage per turn.
You get to roll one additional die when you crit, so that amounts to 4.5 extra damage on a crit, which happens 5% of your attacks.
I can easily come up with 10-15 Feats that would be better options.
No doubt that there are better options mechanically.
The difference between rerolling 2s and rerolling is only an expected difference of .25 damage. Considering that you have a 37.5% chance of rolling lower than, you have to consider whether it's worth it. The difference between 3s and 4s is less, only an expected difference of .0625 points of damage.
As for the crits, you can get a better crit rate via champion or hexblade, and rolling with advantage also helps. Getting a second feat for Elven Accuracy can increase the crit rate as well.
That said, it's likely only worth it for thematic reasons from a strict math view. I want presenting it as a great option, just as a way to optimize it if you decided that you wanted to take it.
How something fits thematically is a matter of personal taste. The effects of Piercer is strictly mechanical, though. I kind of obsessively deep dive into the game mechanics, crunching numbers and such. The Peircer feat essentially boils down to being a means to do more damage. It's just not very much at all. It sounds a lot better when you read it than when you calculate it.
The thematics would be around piercing damage in both ranged and melee range. It would make a better secondary or tertiary feat. I've also said that it is inferior mechanically, that taking it would be a matter of personal taste, and agreed that there are many better feats. It's not like crusher or slasher where it has a control angle. I've mentioned that it is worse (at least in some ways) than Great Weapon Fighting Style and Savage Attacker Feat, neither of which is a great choice mechanically, but it also has better aspects than both of those. I've mentioned that I would choose Sharpshooter as far as the OP is concerned. Pretty much everything that I've said otherwise was what I would do if I was to try to maximize it. Hopefully, that will help people that aren't looking at it as a crucial part of the build to consider other options, but those who absolutely want the feat to consider why they would want to take it.
For most piercing builds, sharpshooter or PAM will simply be superior as a primary feat. That leaves dual wielding builds, rapier builds, and switch hitter builds.... I don't think anything else would qualify, but I could be wrong. Considering the analysis that I had about maximizing piercer feat leading to a rogue and rogues being primarily archers... it's just not a good option. Maybe a Ranger that also has spells with piercing damage that aren't part of the attack?
TLDR Piercer isn't the worst feat, but it's certainly not among the best and it's focus on damage doesn't give it much room to fit among the competition. Therefore, if you choose to take it, know why you are taking it so that you won't be disappointed.
I think piercer has its place. It’s not nearly as good as sharpshooter when taken on a class that has the extra attack feature, since sharpshooter benefits can potentially be used fully on every attack made.
after looking at some number crunching though it may be comparable to sharpshooter on a rogue who uses two weapon fighting or somehow gains another kind of bonus action attack with a piercing weapon, as long as the +1 to dex or strength increases the modifier.
Assuming a roughly 65% accuracy with a normal roll before the feat is taken, the piercer feat would give an increase to damage by accuracy increase and an additional point of damage modifier. If your rogue has disadvantage(which sucks real bad for a rogue cause no sneak attack) the damage is higher with the piercer feat. If the rogue has a single roll on the attack the accuracy and static damage increase slightly edges out sharpshooter. Advantage gives the edge to sharpshooter.
if your rogue has a hard time gaining advantage due to the environment, DM fiat, or potentially a lack of ally teamwork, piercer may be better for you. But basically only if your a rogue, have an odd stat modifier, and you don’t get advantage often.
It's not hard to be a crit-fishing Elven bow user, since you can dump pretty much every stat other than Dexterity. Being able to roll an extra d8 on Longbow crits, on top of the round-to-round ability to reroll a 1 or a 2, wouldn't feel bad once you've checked off picking up Sharpshooter, Elven Accuracy, and taking your Dex to 19. Really, Sharpshooter before Dex is at 20 is usually too big of a to-hit malus even with Archery fighting style's +2, and the fact that Piercer can be part of you getting to 20 is a potential reason why you might pick it up first, even though you care about it less than Sharpshooter in a final build. Conventional build wisdom requires only one half-stat feat to take your starting 17 up to 20 at level 8 after a half-stat feat and a +2 ASI... but I can picture an Elven fighter or rogue that takes Piercer, Skill Expert, and Elven Accuracy to get there instead, leaving Sharpshooter for Tier 3 play at 12 where it rightly belongs.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
If you have a build where Elven Accuracy is being triggered frequently, then Sharpshooter isn't nearly as big of a challenge even without archery fighting style. And not all of Sharpshooter's damage increase comes from the power attack as it makes your accuracy better in extreme circumstances. That's not to say that most of the damage isn't from the power attack, just that options open up when you don't have to worry about long range disadvantage or partial cover.
However, the build that you mention falls in line wonderfully with one of the builds that thematically wants piercer feat. You might be able to get more from another feat mechanically, but it just doesn't fit the way piercer would, even if piercer is just adding damage.
half feat bruh