Right, so Marth's Fsmash is useless because the player using Marth could just Utilt instead and start a juggle?
Marth's F-Smash comes out very fast and is very strong while Link's F-smash comes out slow, and side-tilt is slow and weak, I'm saying there's always at least 1 option overshadowing the forward tilt
You should keep in mind that percent numbers can drastically change the mindset of either player. If an opposing character is at a kill percent for one of Link's more potent KO moves, then it's very likely that they player using said character will make a mental note of where it's safest to approach Link. Dsmash, Utilt, Usmash, Zair, etc all have their respective faults, and cannot cover all of Link's blindspots simultaneously. Link's Ftilt adds another option to his already amazing zoning; it's another 'bubble' which the player using Link could use to cover certain areas.
Said bubble is extremely telegraphed and doesn't come out quick enough to hit a character before they can shield, jabbing is a better option if the character is in front of you, and up-tilt is a better option if they are above you, neither of those attacks have much of a fault, there's no place or need for side-tilt
Batting people away, maybe?
down-smash is better on the ground cause it's stronger and comes out faster, side-smash is only a bit slower but has more horizontal range, and F-Air is stronger, besides batting people away is something you'd only want to bother to do when the opponent is in kill range, and Link has much better options for a kill than side-tilt
You're 'rating' Ftilt through the utilization of that nonsensically aggressive "everything must combo / kill / do something silly in order to have a use"
Not even close, characters have useless moves, look at Ganondorf's up-tilt, I'm saying the side-tilt for Link is just that, a useless move, not every move for a character needs to be good, I was just pointing out that the side-tilt was slightly buffed to become useful, but that buff was in vain because the move is still useless
it's much better to play Link conservatively, and space Ftilts, in order to prevent to opposition from breaching Link's defenses -- effectively amplifying Link's defensive game and thus making him a more formidable (and for that matter, irritating) force.
No not really, the boomerang is a better spacing option, same with Z-air, arrows, F-Smash, and even SHFFL'd F-airs, jumping back and tossing a boomerang is especially good, f-tilt doesn't have the range for it to be a spacing tool, a lot of characters have an attack that is within range to hit Link and can whip it out after blocking Link's f-tilt, at least with his f-smash they get pushed back if they block it, the Z-air has significantly more range, same with SHFF arrows, and SHFFL's f-airs let Link block in time, possibly to Spin Attack OoS against a counter-attack, the f-tilt doesn't have a place here really from my experience as I've recently tried it, only to have it over-powered, have it miss from lack of range, or have it blocked then counter-attacked
Ftilt may not kill as early as Dair, combo as well as Utilt and Dthrow, or linger as long as Nair, but it certainly has use against players who understand Link and know how to stop a lot of his bull****.
F-tilt isn't a good killing option, and it's not a combo move either, and I think I've played enough of Link against my friend (who can now reflect my boomerangs and arrows 80% of the time with shielding) for him to know Link's weaknesses as he's exploited them a decent amount of times, and as far as I've tried, F-tilt has proved a useless option for any purpose, overshadowed by a clearly better one
