I'm finding it difficult to justify the loss of a free +10 Stability on guns for a "5-10% increase" on flinch. Is this flinch increase noticeable? Can anyone here say that they've honestly won a gunfight because of the increased flinch put out by HC rounds, or is it a placebo?
This is only about PvP btw. In PvE, I prefer HC rounds because they consistently stunlock and stagger enemies.
Bungie had a big post about this year's ago. Basically, staggers are applied in stacks, and each weapon archetype applies different amounts of stacks, but rapid-fire weapons apply it faster, and high caliber rounds further increases the stacks, reducing the time before flinch.
As I recall in that post they mentioned that rapid fire pulses was the best weapon for HCRs and both hand cannons and scouts were the worst due to their slow ROF.