Just so ya'll understand;
Deadband is normally used to allow older sticks with dirty or worn pots (potentionmeters) to get past a spike. Spikes look like
a seismograph (Richter earthquake scale)in the setup mod (blue screen) when you move the stick. You slide up the dead band until the spiking stops. If you're using a new stick you don't need to touch it.
Damping delays the input of the stick in milliseconds. It allows you to adjust just how fast (sensitivity of the stick) the inputs went to the control surfaces when you touched the stick. It also became a defense against stick stirring. People complained that when they saddle up all the guy in front of them had to do was stir his stick rapidly and they'd never get a shot. If you ever saw the message "don't move your controls so rapidly" then have your stick lock up for 5-10 seconds that's a response from the game to stick stirring.
Everyones stick is a little different and here's why you'd slide the damper up a little bit at a time.
1) you take a ping and yank the stick in response to the unplanned attack and get the lock up and message. You may need to slide all 3 axis' up a bit.
2) you dive your plane and barely touch the stick and you black out. Slide the pitch damper up a bit. The slight delay will allow you to ease the stick back and prevent black out.
Hope this helps
Ren