Steelseries 9HD is much similar to the Steelseries S&S which in my opinion is (or was, out of production?) the best plastic mousepad I've ever played on. Still don't know why I play on cloth these days. Had amazing aim on hard pads :).

@Naper, Goliathus is a cloth pad, you probably assumed that OP meant 'rough' which the Goliathus control is indeed (using that one as I speak).

Not really familiar with other hard mousepads.

You are correct, no I thought the OP meant hard I just thought the goliathus was a hard pad.

That's an interesting question you pose. I play on cloth due to the fact that it's easier to get large cloth pads. Is that the only reason?

Is a hard pad actually superior? You think you had better aim on the hard pad. Did you?

I'm pretty sure I had better aim on hard pads. Simply due to the fact that they have lower static friction, allowing you to be more precise doing micro movements. Gives you a big advantage if you use mid to higher sensitivity and have steady hands at the same time. Cloth has higher static friction and in my opinion is less optimal for mid/high sens, but a pad like the QcK heavy for instance has this thickness, allowing you to stop your mouse any time during the movement as you like. This improves your rocket/flick aim by miles over a hard pad.

A pad like the goliathus control kinda offers both but it feels a bit rough on my wrists. Thats why I use a QcK heavy at the moment. And yeah cloth pads are cheaper, mostly more durable and easier to get than hard pads. But LG/Hitscanwise on <23cm/360 hard pads are superior by miles, no question about that.

Hope this brings more clarity to you.

Although expensive - the QPad Heaton is the best hard pad I've tried - and I've tried a lot. Also excellent if you need hard and large... (talking about pads here:)

fUnc 1030-variants / F-series / S-series
Steel S&S
X-Ray Thunder 8 / 9
Razer eXactMat
Icemat 2.0 / Steel Experience I-2

Thanks but I figured screw it and I got a g400s because it was on sale.

cha0tic90 likes it HARD

lol

Komaq g-pad or go home. xD

Mine is two years old, and is still as new as the day I got it; I used to replace hard mats every 6 months as the surface friction would be crazy uneven after a while (steel series 9HD, destructor, etc)

http://wasd.jp/products/752/

worth the ~90$ shipped and imported from Japan.

I had an icemat (still do somewhere) and it tracks 10000x better and feels 019283109381029 better. The surface is like a fine sandpaper and is incredibly slick.

not to mention avago 9500 based mice can do over 6 m/s on it.