as long as traffic levels permit, I always issue vectors or some kind of routing that will give the aircrafts a free rate of climb or descend.
Of course, this will give you some kind of extra workload, so if the workload is too high, you'll stick to giving level changes instead, and just give direct routing.
Been working area control for 2 years now, and twr/app before that - so maybe I'm still a bit into the "there is no substitute for a good vector"-thinking..
ENBD ACC