Do you prefer fabric or plastic? Do you like soft or hard? Do you want hugemongous or itty bitty?

I'm using a Razer Goliathus. I prefer big, flexible, cloth.

My previous pad was an Xtrac.

I would recommend some mouse feet things to go with the new pad. For about $4

I have both an original Icemat and a Steelseries I-2 (what SS made after they bought Icemat). I love them! I've used an eXactMat and some other gaming pads before but nothing beats the frosted glass feel of the I-2 for me. If you like a REALLY smooth glide (I mean REALLY smooth) the I-2 is for you. Many people like the friction of rougher pads but not me.

I have both an original Icemat and a Steelseries I-2 (what SS made after they bought Icemat). I love them! I've used an eXactMat and some other gaming pads before but nothing beats the frosted glass feel of the I-2 for me. If you like a REALLY smooth glide (I mean REALLY smooth) the I-2 is for you. Many people like the friction of rougher pads but not me.

Did SS buy IceMat? From what I read they were two brands under one owner who were launched simultaneously, but later merged. At least that's what I gathered from it, a bit hard to understand it all.

Also, +1 for the Icemat(it will always be icemat for me), it is absolutely fantastic and the best surface I have used so far.
Only issues I have with it are height and sound. Sometimes it feels a bit too high to be used comfortably, but that might vary depending on how you sit.
Other issue is sound and feel; it feels like it's eating the mouse feet. I've heard it's actually rather gentle with the feet, but it just doesn't feel that way.
A third issue some might have is cleaning; it's important to keep it clean.

Artisan Shiden-Kai mid. It's a glass coated cloth pad. It has the glide smoothness of a hard surface, with a soft feel of cloth with slight friction and offers the best tracking of any surface I have tried to date.

Very interesting. Any pix of a well-used pad? I also don't quite get how a glass coat on a flexible substrate works - user's impressions?

I use a variety of Razer - mostly rigid - pads.  They work for me but hahahaha not always well with Razer mice.

Here's a pic of my original Icemat. Had this guy for at least 6-7 years now!

hu... this is CRAZY GOOD: http://www.cshyde.com/c4web/home.htm

i've tried em all, and I settled on the cshyde for good..(Xai at the moment). It's SOOOOOOO Good.

Artisan Shiden-Kai mid. It's a glass coated cloth pad. It has the glide smoothness of a hard surface, with a soft feel of cloth with slight friction and offers the best tracking of any surface I have tried to date.

I'm definitely going to agree here - I have tried all the Razer, Corepad, Steelseries, Everglide and QPad cloth pads and none even come close to feel and quality. (well perhaps the Razer Goliathus Speed on its first week, it really wears out a bit too fast)
I have owned an Artisan KAI.Hien G3 Hard, Soft and the Shiden MID (the white normal version) and had each for over 6 months. They have been put under a lot of stress and I play a lot of competitive high level gaming with a not too high sensitivity. Not much sign of wear, I only needed to wipe them off with a wet piece of fabric (do not use paper, it's kinda weird - breaks up and sticks to the mousepad) if they had just a little bit of inconsistency.

Well those are my 2 cents, but it's a relatively expensive piece of cloth - though worth every penny.

PureTrak Talent, read the reviews on google.

I've had the Razer destrutor for about 1 year. It's decent but it's finally showing some wear

Shiden-kai. And Shiden(white color unlike the red -kai).

A Twilight mouse pad? Jesus.

i have a steelseries qck ...

I have an SS qck 'something, about a foot square rubber backed cloth.
Not going to be using anything else. For the cost I have not seen/used anything that can come close.

But then I am not a gamer and just use the mat to help the  mouse track better and feel smooth,
adds nothing to my street cred or hi score.
YMMV

I have Goliathus Speed. I eat off it, wash it with washing powder and abuse it in all sorts of ways. It even has cat fur all over.

Best mouse and pad combo I've ever had, however, was a cheap Logitech issue (EX 110 wireless desktop, wasn't cheap back then but the mouse's price was influenced by wireless being pricey at that time) on a small, scratchy round pad that I bought in a museum in Greece (the round shape to resemble the disk with linear writing that was depicted on it). The mouse received a layer or two of tiny teflon sliders. The only problem was the pad being a bit too small and the sliders colliding with edges. Otherwise it glided like on ice. But that was in 1024*768, when 800 dpi was plenty.

By the way, Gunny's leather pad absolutely rocks and I mean it. Must be the cavalryman's blood.

However, some really good pads belong to the cheapest pads ever, as in pads that don't even get a print on them to cut the costs. Like $1.5 pads. Almost as good as my Goliathus, although not there (too much friction, slower gliding, theoretically better for some kind of games or gamers, though).

Some other great mousepad I've had has been the kind some guy from the Internet would print custom pictures on. It cost half of what my Goliathus did and might have been better. But it was for a gift. I didn't order another. I may be ordering some for Christmas for my customers (to put my company contact data on it, basically, as in passive advertising) and I may keep one or two for me then. You may want to try too. As a bonus, you can print your gaming alias or something on it.

IMHO the ultimate gliding comfort is the product of the pad, the mouse sliders (and possibly the size of the sliding area) and the weight settings of the mouse (the removable weights).