As an older Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 fan, (went through about 3 or 4 of them?) Followed by a logitech 500, I have now had the death adder (blue 3.5g v) and swear by it.
The sensor has never skipped a beat, and tracks soo freaking accurately.
It was also the first right handed model (that i know of) from Razer.
I can play games (fps or rts) all day on it and have zero pain unlike using the other mice, or the crappy OEM mice you get @ work.
My only issue with this bad ass mouse, is the fact I use it too much (3-4 years of solid mousing?) and where I thought I was dragging my pinky in a game of bf3, it was actually the right foot had worn flat on one edge, and as such had started to peel back.
as it turns out, I can buy replacement feet from razer. so that's cool, ill be doing that soon! Because having one of the feet off, is driving me nuts!
Sorry to hear about the RAT as well :/ was hoping your story might have ended up differently.
And I too haven't laid my hand(s) on a trackball since well before the turn of the century, so I can't really comment either. Might take some getting used to, but, could be good.
On the other hand, just get a death adder