Introduction
What’s the most important factor for your aim? Ask most people and they’ll probably tell you that it’s getting the right sensitivity, or using a mouse that’s comfortable for you. I would’ve said the same thing. Until I accidentally proved myself wrong.
I’m not a peripheral nerd. I’ve never been the type to try out different peripherals, or change my mouse skates. My approach has always been ‘if it aint broke dont fix it’ and to not obsess over my gear and just practice. I used the same mousepad for the last four years, I switched mice when they broke, but never thought to change my pad. And I thought that was the best thing to do, to use what I’m comfortable with as many pro players do. But one day I changed it, for a completely aesthetic decision, with zero thought about performance. And it completely changed the way I thought about my setup forever.
Why your mousepad matters.
To put it simply, your mousepad controls how your mouse moves. It sounds straightforward, but think about what that means- every single movement you make, the mousepad is shaping how the mouse responds to the force that you’re putting on it. It’s constantly affecting your aim. And every pad does this differently.
So what makes pads different?
There’s the physical traits of the mousepad:
- texture: rough or smooth.
- firmness: soft or hard.
- material: glass, cloth.
All of these combine to affect how the mouse feels when you move it across the pad. This “mouse feel” usually gets categorised by the pad’s speed. You’ve got slow pads, usually called control pads—things like the X-Raypad Aqua Control 2+ or Steelseries QCK+. Then you’ve got fast pads like the Skypad or Artisan Raiden. And balanced pads that sit somewhere in between, like the Hien or Key-83.
However, there’s actually a lot more traits to a pad than just its speed. You have:
- static friction: how much force it takes to move the mouse from stationary.
- stopping power: how much the pad’s friction helps stop the mouse as you bring it to a halt.
- dynamic friction: the drag you feel while the mouse is in motion.
These traits aren’t purely defined by the pad being fast or slow. There are some pads that are controlled and have low static friction. Or a pad that is balanced with lots of stopping power. Wear to a pad can also affect all of these traits, usually feeling faster until broken in, with it gradually getting slower over time.
Why does that matter for my aim?
I used to think all of this was subjective—you choose what feels nice and works for you, and stick with it so that you feel confident and consistent. But here’s the thing:
Some traits are actually better to have than others for certain types of aiming. Even for entire games.
I knew this was the case myself but I never really knew how big of an impact it made until I experienced it firsthand.
My Experience with Glass
I was maining Counter-Strike when I changed from my balanced (but worn) Hien to a speedy glasspad. Because I thought it was pretty. Glass is known for being fast, with zero stopping power and low static friction. And as soon as I started using it, I felt it immediately. I was hitting absolutely insane clips, but there was a problem. The pad made me crazy fast. Flicks were effortless. Micro-adjustments had zero resistance. But the second my aim wasn’t perfect and I needed to make a correction? I couldn’t hit a shot. My consistency disappeared. The lack of friction meant the only thing controlling my mouse was me and me alone. But then I went to train my tracking. The reduced friction made it so easy to control my speed and stay smooth on targets. Smoothness was easy, changing directions and velocity adjusting was a breeze.
Did the same pad that made me bad as CS make me goated at tracking?
That’s when it clicked. It wasn’t that the pad was bad, it was just the wrong surface for that type of aim. It was then when I realised that this wasn’t entirely subjective but that certain pads really are better for certain types of aiming.
What pads are good for certain types of aiming?
Speed pads like the Skypad are great for tracking heavy games like apex, but when it comes to target switching or precise clicking, it becomes much harder to stay stable and in control without tension. This applies to the other side of the spectrum with slower control pads like the Zero or QCK being great for tac-fps games, where there’s clicking-heavy situations where flick and microcorrection consistency is king. When it comes to tracking and smoothness though, you might have issues with the friction being too high, making it hard to maintain a constant speed without tension.
What if you play Overwatch however? And you need a mix of both clicking consistency and tracking smoothness? This is why more balanced pads exist like the Hien, where dynamic friction is low but there is stopping power to help with controlled flicks and micros.
Should I change my pad?
Let’s stop for a second. Think about your own setup right now.
What pad are you using? Does it make sense for the type of aiming you do in-game?
If not, then it might be worth considering a tool that’s more fit for the job, by getting a pad that suits your aiming style better.
But what if you want more control over your friction? What if you’re using a balanced pad for tacfps and just want a touch of extra control? Or want more glide and less friction for tracking games. What if you don’t have the money to buy a new pad? And need a way to make do with what you have?
What if there was another factor other than your pad which you can change to optimize your surface for your aim. Something that’s been hiding under your palm this whole time. Let me introduce you to mouse skates.
Mouse Skates
What makes skates different? Being the first point of contact between the mouse and the pad, I think they are almost as important as the pad you are using. Now this isn’t a skate guide by any means but I want to talk about the two important factors to mouse skates. The first factor is the skate type.
Just like mousepads, skates also have different properties which affect how the mouse feels on your pad. Most skates are made out of additives mixed with PTFE. Having varying degrees of hardness, purity, thickness, etc. which all change how they feel on your mousepad. And just like mousepads, these are categorised by speed.
You have fast skates like the X-Raypad Jades which can lower static and dynamic friction, or Control skates like the Obsidian airs which can increase it instead.
Mouse Coverage
The more contact your mouse has with the pad, the more friction there will be. Ideally, you want to only have as much contact with the pad as you need, while avoiding direct contact with the mouse base, only having contact with skate to pad. Most mice come with ‘full skates’ which cover up most of the mouse, this means that most stock skates for mice will be slightly more controlled due to the additional friction.
There’s a reason for this however, full skates are useful for soft and extra soft pads where the mouse can sink into the pad with added pressure, ensuring that any contact with the mouse is only via skate. Most custom skates come in dot form, so you can have only as much coverage as you need. People typically use 4-6. However, if you do have a squishy pad, you may need to increase coverage from 8-10.
Why should I ever change my Skates?
Custom skates are usually much better than stock skates, as custom skates are designed with a specific purpose rather than just being an afterthought from the mouse company, they’re also very cheap for what they are and can completely change the experience of a pad. This makes custom skates a cheap upgrade for almost any setup and also a great way to change up your surface to your liking. Let’s bring back my experience from earlier as an example.
My Experience with Surface optimisation
Glass pads need harder skates as the hard surface tends to wear down normal skates a lot faster, so I was convinced to buy out custom skates for my glasspad. And this actually ended up completely changing my opinion about skates forever. I bought 2 pairs of skates for glass, one fast and the other controlled. The issues I spoke about earlier were all on the fast skates, and switching to the X-Raypad Obsidian Airs which were the control skates, completely changed things. Suddenly I was hitting my best static and target switching scores on this pad, despite it being fundamentally wrong for that type of aiming. The control skates made the glass pad usable for CS. I could actually play the game consistently. But I was still fighting against what the pad was designed for. It was optimized for tracking, and I was forcing it to work for well-rounded aiming. The skates were a band aid fix, but not the solution.
I realised I needed a pad with more stopping power and control than glass, so I switched to a Raiden—a cloth speedpad. It felt so much better but the dynamic friction was just slightly too high for tracking. So I started using speed skates to compensate for that, and my aim has never felt more optimized for my well-rounded aiming needs.
How to optimise your setup yourself
So how do you actually optimize your own setup? Start by looking at the pad you already use and what type of games you play. If your pad isn’t optimised for your game, like using a speed pad for tacshooters or a control pad for tracking games—skates can help, but they’re a band-aid. And you would benefit a lot by switching the pad.
But if you have the right pad already or just can’t change, here’s where skates shine.
Think about what type of aiming you struggle with in game and see if there’s a change you can make.
For example, if you play tactical shooters on a control pad, but it feels sluggish when trying to clear angles, try out some fast skates to reduce friction, without sacrificing the stopping power of a control pad.
If you play Overwatch on a speed pad and your tracking feels decent, but your Cassidy/Widow is inconsistent? Control skates can add that stopping power without making you buy a whole new pad.
If you play a variety of games, or like your aim to be well-rounded in aimtrainers: you might want to have a combo that finds a balance between what you are using. Like a slow pad with speed skates or fast pad with control skates.
Try to apply this same logic to the pad you’re already using to find skates that would match your aiming style with your pad. This way you can tweak and optimize your setup to the style of aiming and gameplay without completely changing your pad and breaking the bank.
Skates can be used as an additional tool in your setup to help you tweak certain factors of your pad to your liking. You should be thinking of your mousepad and skates as a combination, rather than two separate things. The important thing is though that Skates are not magic, if your pad is not optimised for your game or old and crusty, no skate will ever fix that.
Key learnings
I used the same pad for four years thinking that I had it all figured out. The thing is, I wasn’t even wrong to stick with what worked. The issue was that I didn’t know what ‘optimal’ even felt like until I stumbled into it.
Small differences have a big impact while aiming, especially in competitive games where milliseconds and consistency matters. Your mousepad and skates aren’t just preference. They can actively improve and enhance your aiming ability when used correctly. The key is knowing when to tweak and when to change.
So think about your setup right now.
What pad do you have? What skates are you using?
Is your pad the right fit?
Playing tactical shooters on a glass pad? Or playing tracking games on a crusty, old, control pad? Maybe consider a change.
If you want a small change, that’s when skates are your answer. They’re the cheaper, easier fix for fine-tuning your setup to your liking.
And if your pad is 3 years old or older? Just replace it. You’re not even using what you think you’re using anymore.
Even if you feel like everything is fine, just like I did—let me tell you this:
Experimentation is how you find your endgame.
You might be comfortable right now, but you won’t know if something’s better or not, until you try out something new.
Don’t be afraid to change. Your setup isn’t meant to be rigid, just like your sensitivity isn’t. Aiming isn’t muscle memory, it’s technique. And the right tools make that technique easier to execute.
Change isn’t starting over. It’s opening the door to new opportunities.