[kaisersozei]

I usually use a starter, and always do if the OG > 1.050. The only time I haven't done this recently is when I used Nottingham dry yeast for a pale/blond ale--just sprinkled it over the top of the wort, and that stuff took off in about 8 hours!

But that's just me. If you are using White Labs or other liquid yeast, you can always just pitch it directly into the fermenter and wait. I know a lot of guys go this route and have great results, even if it takes a little while to get fermentation going.