I've noticed that a lot of Arena druids (at least in the bargain-basement ratings brackets where I play) seem to think that Cyclone is some sort of I-win button that makes them immune to normal game mechanics. Over and over again, I've had druids whom I was meleeing try to Cyclone me, as if I'm not standing there with a spell interrupt ready. Restodruids are actually one of the harder classes for me to 1v1, since I can't dispel HoTs, but I've beat a couple in the arena who kept handing me the opportunity to lock them out of the Nature school for four seconds at a time from trying to Cyclone me at point-blank range.

Note to novice arena druids: Warriors, rogues, and DKs have melee-range spell interrupt abilities. If you cast something with a cast time when one of us is standing right next to you, your spell will be interrupted and you'll be locked out of that spell school for the next four seconds. Druids (and pallies) only have one spell school, so to them that's as good as a silence.

By the way, mtwcmarsh, as a feral druid, using Bash first is a good way to make sure your Cyclone lands (or at least, this works on me ;) ). But I think you're right in thinking that it's mostly a tool for caster druids.