Now that I've gotten over my "Pac-Man sucks!!!" phase and actually recognize him as a potential upper-mid or even high-tier, I'm gonna add one last post here!
With 3.0.0 coming out... Hopefully soon, I do hope Pac gets buffed, but not quite as much as I originally put back there. Some things, I think are pretty reasonable, while others are reaching. So I'll separate those.
So what's wrong with Pac-Man? Not much, on paper. His normals are, for the most part, decent. Jab is quick, F-Tilt is a good poke, Up and Down Tilt could use some work, but they're not bad. His smashes are strong (F-Smash, I swear, is absurd sometimes), but laggy. His aerials are amazing (I personally believe his Fair is potentially the best Forward Air in the game), with the exception of maybe Up Air, and at times, Bair. They're slow (both frame 9), Up Air can be used to combo, but I feel it has Lucas syndrome. As in, it's only deemed good because it has combos, namely Up Throw to Up Air. In a vacuum, it has some strong flaws, especially when compared to other ones like Mario, ZSS, Falcon, Squirtle, you get the idea. Doesn't kill, doesn't link into itself reliably, though at least it has a long-lasting hitbox. Bair, conversely, is Pac's "kill aerial." But it has honestly little knockback, being close to Mario (who's Bair is more of a combo tool than anything) in raw kill power. Combined with some trickily high ending and landing lag, it's a big mystery why it was designed this way. And, of course, his specials are among the most oppressive this game offers. Fruits are versatile, so is Hydrant, Pellet is very strong, and combined with Pac-Jump, gives him one of the best recoveries in Smash.
That begs the question, though, what can't he do? Well, kill, and deal with pressure. His kill options, save tricks and traps, are lackluster. Bair kills around 170% from middle-stage with good DI, Key at around 150%. Cheesy Dair kills work great, Fair gimps amazingly, Bell to Smashes are fantastic, but when you take those away or are fighting a slippery, safe-recovery character, what do you get? A Pichu at 190% spamming F-Tilts and Thunders at you; a mythical creature that shouldn't exist unless you play Sheik. As for pressure, all of his Specials are purposeful double-edged swords. Fruit can be stolen, Pellet can be broken, Pac-Jump can be broken and stolen, and Hydrant can both push you away and be launched by your opponent. If you're against someone speedy who manages to grab your Fruit, you're fighting an uphill battle to both get it back and deal with not having a large majority of your playstyle. Pac-Man simply can't chase well enough to lock them down, and while his normals are good, they can't do much if not combined with his Specials. The game turns into a "catch me if you can" fest, with your opponent running circles around you while tacking on damage here and there. And zoning characters... Just try to chase down a Samus, Snake, even a Mii Gunner who knows what they're doing. A fakeout Key or Hydrant only works so many times before they just start shielding it. I have nightmares about Dark Samuses holding my Key with a full Charge Shot while laying bombs and Missiles everywhere. For a Zoning character, Pac tends to struggle against those of his ilk.
With that in mind, I have what I think are the "necessary" buffs. I don't think these would make Pac broken, per se, but would massively improve his game plan:
Run Speed: 1.672 -> 1.79.
Initial Dash: 1.87 -> 1.98.
Air Speed: 1.092 -> 1.208.
Dash Attack: Startup 10, 19, 28, 37 -> 8, 15, 21, 26. FAF 46 -> 35.
Down Tilt: Angle 45° -> 76°, FAF 27 -> 23.
Back Air: Damage 11.8% -> 12.8% with a slight knockback increase (Kills Mario from mid-FD with no DI around 140%, from 157%).
F-Smash: FAF 53 -> 46.
Up Smash: FAF 50 -> 40, 2nd hit Damage 14% -> 12% with knockback not compensated.
Down Smash: FAF 55 -> 48.
And there we go. Pac-Man is faster to chase opponents better (and for followups, of course), Dash Attack is more of a quick burst option (but still doesn't kill or combo), Down Tilt is a combo tilt (and restores some Hydrant utility lost from the old Up Tilt), Bair is stronger, and all Smashes are much faster (Up Smash, in particular, is close to Smash 4's old endlag. It used to have an FAF of 38, among the very fastest in the game. This retraction is at the cost of power, though). Overall, he's much safer and kills easier, but still struggles in certain matchups, and suffers from double-edged Specials. This might bump Pac up a few spots on the tier list, but I don't think it would break him at all. Just make him a bit scarier since he can make better use of his tools, pressure opponents more safely, and actually kill reliably without having to pray an errant Bell or Smash seals the deal.
Which brings me to the changes where I'm just reaching too far, even for my liking. I want these, sure, but I think they'd break Pac a little bit.
F-Tilt: Damage split into two hitboxes. Foot deals 10%, Leg deals 7%, neither with compensated knockback. FAF 31 -> 28.
F-Smash: Damage 16%/15% -> 17%/15.5% with knockback not compensated.
Down Smash: Startup 15 -> 13, Damage 13% -> 15% with knockback not compensated.
Fair: Active 5-8 -> 4-7, FAF 26 -> 23, landing lag 10 -> 6.
Up Air: Active 9-16 -> 7-14, FAF 37 -> 33, landing lag 10 -> 8. HOWEVER, there would be an added hitbox on frame 15-16 that spikes (about Ness' Dair
strength.) Just for silly stuff and gimps, similar to the spike hitbox on Wii Fit's Fair.
Dair: FAF 50 -> 44, Angle ~45° -> 35°.
Trampoline: Landing lag is now based on the last-used trampoline. Initial, Jumping on Blue, Jumping on Yellow, and Jumping on Red were all 30, but are now 18, 22, 26, and 30 respectively.
The mad man buffed Fair, I know. Most of these are quality of life changes that I think are a bit too much. F-Tilt is already good as is, but is now even scarier is properly spaced. F-Smash and Down Smash are even stronger kill moves, to be more ridiculous. Fair is even faster, and can combo better into itself or other kill moves. Up Air is a better juggling and landing tool. Dair kills even earlier offstage, semispikes, and can potentially combo into Key. And Trampoline is even safer to put down for stage control. One or two of these might be able to sneak their way into the list up top, but combined with the other buffs, it might be giving the guy a little too much going for him. He'd need some nerfs to balance him out.
That being said, I would be content if Pac stayed the way he was. The only changes I think he desperately needs are a couple cooldown reductions (namely on his Smashes) and a teeny bit more speed (not even as high as what I put there). The rest is icing on the cake. But if I don't get that, eh. He's good, he's fun, and that's all I need. He's my forever main, and I really hope that never changes.