Artisan or IceMat

any idea where i'd be able to find an icemat? i've heard they're discontinued.
and which artisan? I'd heard the shiden-kai is good but only for high sens players. would sth like the hien be any better?

I got 2 icemats and they aren't good for low sens because they are small. Icemats are absolutely boss for medium/high sensitivities though.

I would get a puretrak talent or func 1030 surface (rough side).

I would also recommend artisan hien for low sensitivities however it does not last long, 6 months max and then you'd need a new mousepad. So fuck that.

thanks for the advice! not amazingly sure I like the idea of hard pads, but I'll consider them.

and given that the artisan hien costs about £35 in the UK i don't really want to be buying one every 6 months, i'd want at least a year for that money. meh

func 1030 is great, but i found that the surface wears out pretty quickly. i got a zowie TF Speed and found that it lasts a lot longer and has a similar feel (even better in my opinion). plus, it's relatively large (17x12 inches or 12x10, depending on the model you get), so it should provide plenty of space for lowsens (fgt)

Can confirm Icemat is one of the best pads, same for Func pad on the rough side but i fear its too small also.

Would like to note my Pure Trak Talent is near 8 months old, really clean, never been washed, feels like its slowing down alot but still pretty good pad.

Artisan is the one i really want, i want the super fast one that glides like a ice mat, but 6 months? dam

Whatever OP does a follow up opinion would be good.

Oh and btw PureTrak Talents are like 16 usd atm rather then 25. And the Artisan ones are going to be like 30-35 usd for the large size.

Goliathus Control feels pretty fast, try it unless you have irrational fear of dreadlocks (???!)

I've been using my shidenkai for a year now and it's still consistently smooth and fast, with no visible signs of wear or tear.

u could buy a big matte glass cutting board or have one custom made.
with the artisan pads, it comes down to your mouse and preference. the artisan zero is basicly a better version of the qck. hien and hayate are really famous but they have some problems with some mouse lenses and they are not good for traveling. if you liked your qck, i would go for the artisan zero xsoft l or a custom glass pad.

i have a g400s, would it be a problem with the artisan zero?

couldnt find something with the g400s specific, but ive checked other mice with the same or similar sensor and they work fine.

incredibly tempted to just buy the artisan zero then...

You can find icemats on ebay, I got my I-2 new for 20 quid personally. Had to go back to mainly using a qck heavy after only a couple of months of use though. The sound of my mousefeet against the surface of that thing, once it scratches the skates after a good day of wear, is not bearable for casual use.

ye, u need an endless stock of mousefeet and something else for casual use.

Shidenkai is fine for any sens. in my experience, it really depends on your preference and whether your mouse is suitable for the mat. If you can find an icemat, I'm not sure if it would suit you because it's fairly small by low sens. standards.

http://steelseries.com/us/products/surfaces/s...ifications

I use ZOWIE GEAR G-TF SPEED, excellent quality.

razer goliathus speed large or extended edition

You don't need anything better than pretty much generic cloth pad like qck, or a4tech. Remember that lower friction, doesn't mean it is better, you lose control.

There is a reason why most pros used wmo with stock mouse feet and qck heavy. It is cloth, big, offers good control. Any fancy 50 euro mousepads from japan, or water resistant zowie bullshit makes no difference whatsoever, it is waste of money. I don't even start on hard pads that lose their specs over time very fast. They simply get polished by mouse feet. If simple cloth works for progamers, it is really best all-round solution.

so you'd just suggest to go with another qck+ or a qck heavy?

Agreed on everything except stock wmo feet. Replacing them with hyperglides etc makes them more consistent performing

longevity should be part of the decision. the artisan and glass pads are superior in longevity. if not better in all the other aspects. i never tried a zowie mousepad tho.

My qck heavy has lasted 6 years of heavy use, just replacing it now.

i had some problems after cleaning it. same with razer pads. but 6 years is great. u must be playing with rubber now ;)

Goliathus speed or control

may I ask which would be better for a low sens player? (would the speed edition be a better counterbalance to my sensitivity?)

speed is more confortable, and is closer to a qck than control. Control offers a very particular feeling that not everyone might like :)

i'm not knocking your suggestion since it's greatly appreciated and i'm sorry if this sounds annoying (i promise it's not intended), legit question tho:

if the speed is similar to a qck, why should i buy the speed over a qck?

More durable say some (me included).
Quality stitching all around the edges.

nice, the stitching was actually one of the only things whereby i took an issue with my qck. i'll probably end up buying a goliathus speed + something else as a backup in case something goes horribly wrong with it :/

what T1E said ;)

bst pad combined with bst mouse

Go for Goliathus Speed (Alpha). If Razer got anything right, then its this pad (and the first Abyssus, but thats a different story).
I played on it with all kinds of sens/accel settings and cant say the thing limited me in any way. Its pretty durable, too.

G-TF speed is probably the best pad Ive had, but its really slippery and not the best for low sens unless you use a heavy mouse. The only thing I didnt like about it was the awful stench of rubber that took a week to wear off.

Qck+ is always a good and cheap option, but I felt the longer I used it the warmer it got with all that mouse friction and it started to respond differently after like 10 mins.

i agree with you i think, except for that part :

If Razer got anything right, then its this pad (and the first Abyssus, but thats a different story)

abyssus 2014 is just as good as the old if not better at least if you use default settings 1800dpi 500hz ;)

I actually liked my QcK after the initial wear-in phase. call me crazy. :D

It seems like a lot of people are recommending goliathus pads, the only thing holding me off is that i'm using a logitech (g400s) and I've heard razer pads are pretty incompatible with anything but razer mice. hoping that's bullshit though :D

of course that's bullshit.

Dont worry, all my non-razer mice were just fine with Goliathus Speed. Including Zowie, which supposedly hates colored surfaces.

my zowie ec1 was absolutely trash on my qck+ fnatic edition, like literally even my steelseries sensei tracked things better. nice to know the goliathus is better though :P

I had the same feeling with worn QcK, and unfortunately went for Razer goliathus (tried both control and speed). Don't do that - you'll suffer a lot because both of them has much less friction. Go for a new QcK - my advice!

probably anything but goliathus control, unless you like the idea of moving your mouse on a surface best approximated by a Jamaican man's dreadlocks.

Yeah it's almost, but not quite, the same feel. You're honestly better off using the real thing if you're going to go down that route.

Qck Heavy.

Unless something changed drastically with the 2014 golitahus i never understood why everyone likes the "speed" version. The control feels so much nicer in my opinion, and not at all like dreadlocks for the record x)

(32cm no accel)

I swapped to the Corsair MM200 XL

fuark that's huge, probably too big for my desk actually. was the unusual size the factor that made you keen to switch from what you were using before, or would you recommend that I look into a smaller sized version of this mousepad anyway?

41cm/360 and a razer control works fine most of the time

decided to go for a razer goliathus speed + artisan zero xsoft L. if they're both shit i'll get a qck heavy

thanks for your advice guys, will post again with results.

<3

what happened to the pads? did they arrive yet?

ok, I wrote a huge post about this then esreality deleted my message before I even got a chance to post it for some reason, which basically killed my motivation to make it again.
But since someone is actually interested:

- I got the Razer Goliathus speed, didn't like it. I gave myself a week and a few days to get adjusted to it, but uhm yeah. It had more friction with my G400s (main mouse) than my QcK did, jittered incredibly (to the point of being wholly unplayable) with my Zowie EC1/FK, I could go on blabla. The only two mice which seemed to be okay were my Razer Deathadder (crap mouse) and Steelseries Kana v2 (better but still bleh). I decided I didn't want to change from my G400s to either of these, but I paid good money for this pad and it looks cool so it's now the thing which my keyboard is sitting on. However the green doesn't really go with the rest of my rig, so as weird as this may sound I'm actually considering framing it and putting it on my wall, because I have a green room in my apartment and I think it'd actually look pretty good in there. :D

- I'm currently testing out an Artisan Zero. The glide feels much closer to what I had with my QcK, and it's also more comfortable to rest my wrist on while I play, so I guess that's a plus too. I can't really decide whether or not it's been worth the money over a normal QcK+ because in my opinion it feels so similar, so I've rebought one of those and will do a comparison between the two with my final thoughts and conclusions at a later date.

Thanks for your help everybody!

Good to know, are you keeping all the pads or managing to send the ones you dont want back? Would be good to know more when you do. My first cloth pad felt like shit for the first month coming from hard surface.

I'm british, and therefore too polite to send something back if I dislike it. :p
I was serious about framing the Goliathus on my wall though, I'll even take a picture if my camera decides to work.

The QcK also came today. after some really brief tests I've noticed that the two feel incredibly similar, although the zero is probably a bit softer - the thing feels like it's lighter than air.
Also I have no idea why but it seems like the Zero seems to restrict my mouse movement less than the QcK. Not really in the sense that it over-glides or makes my sensitivity feel higher, it just feels more responsive. It's not really something I can describe properly (as you can tell haha), partially because I've only had the two in my possession for like 10 hours and partially because I'm writing this from a friend's place so it's a really low effort post. I only came on ESR because we're supposed to be going to meet some more people but he went to the toilet and he's been in there for like 7 minutes so I felt like I'd say whadup and happy new year <3

p.s: the smell coming from his toilet is evil, and i might make some kind of better post on this later

to clarify, the post would be on the mousepads, not the smell of his toilet

the smell of the mousepads would be a valid point tho.
QcK stinks for ages, while the Artisan doesn't smell at all.

after last night's celebrations I think I'm the worst smelling thing in the room atm, so I'm not really too bothered about the QcK's alleged funky stank. but yeah you're probably right 8)

nice to hear!

QCK+ or Heavy as it's the only pad textured in a way where it gets better over time and use. Perfect balance of enough friction to stop precisely but to also have smooth initial and small movements. I had both a Goliathus Control and Speed and while they do feel better in the beginning, they deteriorate and change properties rather quickly.

How low? Do you pick up your mouse a lot?

Xtrac Ripper XXXL is what I've used for over a year now. Cloth, 36x18in, I got it for $25

If I need a replacement and can't make my own pad, I'll probably go corepad.

http://www.coolerguys.com/840556097105.html
$40
1200 x 600 x 3.0 mm / 47.20 x 23.60 x 0.1 in

http://www.coolerguys.com/840556101277.html
$60
1500 x 750 x 3.0 mm / 59.06 x 29.53 x 0.12 inches

I think it's time to go lower sens, and never have to lift your mouse again.