My usual practice is not listed among the choices.
Most often, I have some manner of load: a receptacle tester, a toner, the light the switch controls .. to indicate whether the correct breaker was flipped. That's my primary means of checking.
The 'volt ticker' is only a secondary check, used most often when there are multiple devices to be opened.
One of my worst shocks, ever, came from a wire that had been checked with both ticker and meter.
Actually, you might say that any sort of checking is 'secondary.' There have been a few times I happily worked on stuff that was really 'live,' though I was under the impression that it was dead. The work proceeded without event. Only when I went to turn the power back on did I discover that it had been 'on' all the time. In these instances, what prevented mishap were work practices that assued the stuff was live, even though I was sure it was 'dead.'
So, to sum up, for me the chain is like this:
#1: Work as if 'live;'
#2: Check with a load;
#3: Verify with test equipment.