2 levels to pacman?

[Prometheus_98]

After playing pacman for a few months, Ive noticed that he has some extremely good qualities and some exploitable qualities. Biggest exploitable trait is a trap blowing up in your face. Now he really doesn't seem bad on his own. He has fantastic aerials, an anti shield, some projectiles, and what not. This is just basic pacman, cherry, a moves and trampoline.
Is the risk vs. Reward worth it for his traps? or is he better off being played similar to everyone else?
Also I say two levels because there is the basic pacman, listed above, and then there is his wonky mid range projectile game.

 

[JohanVonBronx]

After playing pacman for a few months, Ive noticed that he has some extremely good qualities and some exploitable qualities. Biggest exploitable trait is a trap blowing up in your face. Now he really doesn't seem bad on his own. He has fantastic aerials, an anti shield, some projectiles, and what not. This is just basic pacman, cherry, a moves and trampoline.
Is the risk vs. Reward worth it for his traps? or is he better off being played similar to everyone else?
Also I say two levels because there is the basic pacman, listed above, and then there is his wonky mid range projectile game.

I play both basic (aka safer) and slightly deeper trapping pac-man, but it depends on the matchup. For example I'm not going to play around making a trap against Rosalina. Instead I'm going to play it safe, probably charge straight for key and just bait and punish. But then maybe against someone like Donkey Kong (or really anyone that doesn't have a reflector) I may play around more with galaga combos, and various traps. It just depends on the matchup in my opinion. Pac is very situation based and he has something for almost every occasion. It's just not always easy to do.

 

[FightingPorygonTeam]

His other fruits and tricky moves are definitely worth it. I base most of my kills and damage around traps. What I like to do is switch between his trap-heavy style of play and sudden rushdown, people rarely see it coming, and it just works if done right. I don't really like to camp with fruits only.

His variety is what you need to make certain matchups easier. You need to really be creative with your play against Rosalina (for example, putting the hydrant in between Rosalina and Luma, or baiting a down B and then rushing in). With so many tools, he just becomes a way better character (also harder) than 'basic pacman'.

 

[fromundaman]

You have to switch back and forth between safe and traps.

For a while I was doing pure traps, but the problem was that while my opponents weren't really sure what was going on, higher level opponents were always on high alert for some sort of trap.

By playing it safe and interspercing traps in the middle, you can be much more unpredictable, which helps you land said traps.