Try to land more ftilts, útiles uair fsmash and hips and you should be fine.
Hips? That's more of a Peach/Wario Bthrow thing
Seriously though, I'm having a lot of trouble landing Fsmash on lv9 CPUs and humans can be much smarter than CPUs.
For metagame advancement I think using bombs frequently and in close proximity to the opponent will be key. We Brawl Link veterans need to learn not to avoid our own bomb explosions and embrace the bombs. Be one with the explosions. We must transcend to a state of bomb nirvana or bombvana. OoS bombs, air bombs, bombs thrown down on the opponent, etc no longer launch Link if the explosion touches which means Link can safely be much closer than before. The explosions not hurting Link make incredible chain starters. The stronger casings mean if the opponent shields the bomb it will land softly on the ground, rather than exploding like in Brawl, and be excellent for stopping the opponent from rolling behind Link. The shorter fuses mean if the opponent catches a bomb they're forced to get rid of it fast.
Using bombs in the air, ground and anywhere is Link's Ace up his sleeve that opens chains and is extremely hard to deal with for the opponent.
No Bair/Dair momentum canceling (if I'm not mistaken?) means we should pull a bomb reflexively as soon as Link's launched.
Link's buffed air movement, higher jumps and upB and longer tether make Link a much better intercepting/gimping character. I think Link's KOs will largely come from hitting the opponent away with a non KO move (like bombs) and chasing them as they return to the stage (like @
Elessar
said). From the side, Fair/Bair walls really well and boomerang/arrows frame trap. From below bombs thrown up pressure, Uair outlasts air dodges and beats most (if not all, needs testing) Dairs. Link's Dair walls really well too if the opponent recovers low. In Brawl Link had a short distance spacing style that used his low jumps/hops and landing canceling; in SSB4 Link needs to expand this area significantly and move farther. More reach on Zair helps too.
Utilt seems to be the only safe ground KO move without a frame trap or good read/punish. But Ftilt works very well with projectile traps.
Other changes we brawl vets need to embrace are:
Dair is actually pretty safe if you're not an idiot with it. It ends sooner, has less lag and most importantly, Link's better air mobility aids the long lasting, high priority hit bubbles very well.
Link can roll much more safely now. We need to use this. In Brawl rolling was highly punishable but not any more. Link can't be reckless obviously but he has a decent escape with rolls now.
Grab is much safer now but shorter. It's less of a punish grab and closer to a normal grab. Rage+Uthrow is a decent KO option around 140%-170%+ now.
Dsmash is slower now and isn't as good for roll punishes and jab cancels as it was.
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