Best way to make particle sphere and particle spray

Hiyaa! I often see datapacks with large spheres made from particle points, and I'm not sure what to best way to perform this is. If I make an entity spin around and look up or down using recursive functions, the particles will cluster at the top and bottom of the sphere due to the way rotation works in Minecraft (plus, the performance cost will be significant). I can't imagine putting in every co-ordinate manually either. How are particle spheres usually accomplished?
On the same note, I want to make a spray of directional particles that shoot out at random angles in a cone in front of the player, similar to the ender dragon's breath. I could hardcode it, but if there's a way to make it randomized while staying efficient (I am running this every tick), I'd like to know. 🩷