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.

Timed Payload does a better job.

It matters on certain weapon types, but if you're on console, the stability boost is too good to sacrifice.

only matters if you are playing against an MnK player. I take flinch to the moon. I've been using an Explosive payload and eye of the storm time-lost fate bringer, which EP is supposed to give 30% flinch......controllers just eat it up. The over-tune reticle stickiness and resilience play a factor in flinch resistance, "flinch" increase perks do nothing.

The flinch is scaled by weapon type and weapon archtype. Not worth using on hand cannons. Good with sidearms, autos, smgs and high rof pulses but only if you can afford not using ricochet rounds for the stability. Personally I only use it on sidearms and rapid fire pulses.

They used to but now half the match they are rubber dildos

I have absolutely lost 1v1 encounters before because I just wasn't expecting the incoming flinch to send my reticle to Saturn. That being said I feel like it's definitely not as good as it used to be and only has that large impact a small amount of the time. Also I'm not super good either lol

[quote]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.[/quote] The benefit granted is more noticeable on lower impact weapons since they have lower base flinch. Autorifles will benefit more than a hand cannon.

I always favor stability. Anti-flinch mods perform much better, although I don't have math as backup. I've also found elemental capacitor rolls to be better now than they ever were. You can reach crazy 100 stability, handling, reload depending on your subclass. Depending on your roll, coupled with elemental capacitor you can have a weapon with 100 stability + high handling = duel winning combination. Crafted weapons with enhanced dynamic sway reduction and tap the trigger are also great.