Ah, Link, I was wondering when he'd appear.
Most technical character, I'm not sure about that, but he does have a lot of interesting ATs because of his ranged attacks in general.The disjointed hitboxes everywhere are also a bonus and promote good spacing, but definitely not a character for the timid because controlling those projectiles as well as his myriad ATs are a pain if you don't devote a lot of time.
Spacing (in both the melee and ranged sense) is, as the hint said, utterly essential for Link, because his ranged camping abilities are one of his most important tools. Furthermore in melee distance, his disjointed hitboxes allow him to edge out a lot of other chars in range, granting a measure of additional safety (except for against characters with long hitboxes, cough cough marth).
Thankfully he has some really nice tools for spacing. The bombs, liberally used, allow him to disrupt an opponents movement, even if they don't hit, allowing even the rather slow link to move unmolested. The essentially lagless z-air also provides a great tool for this especially because of it's range, it can pressure any opponent, either by doing damage and hitstun, or hitting sheild, allowing for some relatively unmolested movement when you use a short-hopped zair. Then, when you just want to move an opponent closer, a "missed" gale boomerang provides a great tool for this.
What does this spacing provide? The ability to projectile spam of course! And what an array of options he has. His neutral b, the arrows can have their lag canceled for all sorts of nice little tricks, or simply used as cover for other projectiles or approaches. Since they go reasonably far no matter how long they're charged in this game, they're reasonable to spam as well. The Boomerang on the other hand, isn't really a spammy weapon. There can only be on out at a time so... play smart. As an attack, it's more useful as a persevering threat to maintain space rather then intended to hit because of it's speed. In general it's more useful for it's movement properties. Still, it does damage in a pinch, and can be used to cover for other projectiles.
And then there's bombs, god's gift to Link players. These projectiles can be thrown at a variety of angles or simply dropped. Once they're out, they can be used as needed. Furthermore, they have the advantage of openly beating a couple of reflectors (for example, fox). Most others can be beaten by good timing (ex. falco), or throwing the bomb to the ground next to the reflecting party (ex. wolf). In addition there are also a couple of extremely useful ATs that allow you the freedom to have the bomb while doing other things that would normally result in a throw, making these projectiles highly versitile. Overall, USE THEM, space with them, throw other projectiles then use them, mindgame the opponent into reflecting then catch them off guard, spam them, but USE THEM. Keep in mind though, they can be caught... but waiting a but also leaves them primed to explode making catching them a nasty proposition anyway. Still be careful, often it's better to throw at the ground near an opponent if possible, overall, you just have to try to avoid that with mindgames and proper placing.
Then there's physical attacks. The nice thing is dijointed hitboxes, which means additional priority generally, and an overall safer attack. His jab combo is nice, but the third hit isn't particularly useful, jab cancel into something else. His f-smash is a good way to do early damage because of the potential 35%, but if you whiff it, you're vulnerable, especially because of the two hits. Speaking of which, you can delay the second attack, helpful against some defensive tactics. F-smash also is a nice killing move, so keep that in mind and make sure it's fresh when you're in killing percents. Speaking of combo attacks, the fair is pretty useful in that regard, it has a potential 2 hits, and often if you only hit with the second one, you'll have the opportunity to follow up with, for example, an f-tilt.
Up-smash, it's solid, it's best use seems to be dash-attack canceled approaches, which is very important since Link is quite slow and therefore has a lot of difficulty approaching well.
Don't forgot dair, it's good kill move, but leaves you vulnerable if you wiff. If/When you hit the ground there's heavy lag. Furthermore, it takes a long time to end, so you could be vulnerable in the air a while. Generally, don't use it unless you're guaranteed the hit, ESPECIALLY over the edge.
Uair stays out for a while as I'm sure you noticed. It's also good for verticle killing, abuse that.
Grabs are unfortunately, a bit lackluster. However his shield grab has the nice fact that, it's near impossible to hit his shield with a melee attack and not be in range of shield-grabbing. Since it's (reletive to the rest of his moveset), it's a good response to a sheild aerial.
A few nice ATs make his ledge-guarding game pretty awesome, he can renew the invincibility frames on his edgehog, AND push the foe away with the galeboomerang without give an extra ^b.
Unfortunately, the edge is also his biggest weakness. No ifs ands or buts, his recovery sucks, especially in this game where recoveries are so much better. Thankfully, he doesn't move as much as some other characters. Unfortunately this doesn't save him at higher percents. At least it's priority is good.
Another major weakness, generally speed. Link really needs his space to fight, it's very difficult for him to compete with somebody that outspeeds him because his projectiles all require some wind-up (bombs to pull out, the rest to launch) and most of his melee advantage depends on being able to outspace the opponent, furthermore, his attacks aren't the fastest on the planet. When faced with a speedy opponent that are in his face like Marth or Metaknight, they're in control of the pace of the match. Certain characters are built to be able to wait for an opening (specifically a certain character that hits like a bus full of fat people), but not Link, his spacing needs and projectile heavy game make him need to be in control.
So there you have it, my general opinions on Link as a char. He's only my secondary so I'm not a perfect source but... I think it's pretty fair.
Wow, I'm surprised so many mods and good players think he's good lol. Link sux, no doubt about it.
And seriously, unless someone else here has been consistantly placing well with him at something bigger than local tournaments, don't even try to argue lol. You have no idea how bad Link is at the competetive level.
I think you don't quite understand...
Link would be a good char if not for a few weaknesses (biggest of which is the recovery). Like with all the chars, they're discussing how to make the most of what he has.
Saying, "he's useless, play a different char" doesn't help much for the people who play or are interested in playing Link.
