Like all of us I guess, I want vocals to be solid and consistent.
I always get at least five takes, usually recording one verse or one chorus repeatedly rather than singing through the whole song. Sometimes we'll do repeated takes of single lines - it depends on the song, I often ask the singer for different approaches - "sing it with a smile" or "be angry" to try and capture some variations.
Then there's the comping - determining which parts of which takes to stitch together to get the most effective vocal line. And once that's done, the hygiene routines; trimming tops and tails, setting automation to drop the level on each breath 16db.
After that I'll often split the vocal line into loud and soft passages so I can selectively tweak the overall level of each section to get roughly the same volume throughout the song. Compression and any other processing will then deliver a more consistent result.
My vocal chain usually starts with a high pass filter, and will often have a couple of compressors and a couple of equalisers, sometimes a couple of de-essers, each adding a little pixie dust rather than trying to achieve the desired result in one hit. I use Reaper, and try to be careful about headroom throughout the processing chain, inserting a level plugin after any effect that runs hot and doesn't have a output adjustment.
For balance, I have Vocal Rider and do sometimes use that. Sometimes I also use Trackspacer, a frequency-based ducker, which is undetectable if used very subtly. I almost always write some automation to bring up or attenuate specific syllables.
It takes a lot of time. I sometimes pine for the days of multitrack tape, when the available options were so much more limited.