In reply to mypyrex:
Suppose it depends on the state of your knees, the actual steepness and the terrain. I vary technique from slope to slope, day to day, but generally, if the gradient is steepish, but not too bad, and the terrain okay, I'll almost run down, so that I absorb some of the shock of each pace, but never actually stop. I look well ahead and pick out boulders or stable spots which I can use as 'stoppers' every so often to stop too much speed getting built up.
If it's steeper, or the terrain rougher, I'll go down one step at a time, trying not to make any one step too much of a drop.
Of course there are some slopes, such as the track down through the ski area at Cairngorm, and parts of the path down Sron Riach on Ben McDui, which are of such a gradient that no technique will make them anything other than endless purgatory.
Oh, and I tend not to have proper stops very often, but will have brief 'standing stops' whenever I feel like it - until I realise I'm taking forever, when I might beast on if I can summon the willpower.
Post edited at 09:45