Channeling hurricane is no fun thoughtless play IMO

As I see it, it's a problem that Hurricane isn't simply a bad option, it's not an option at all. That just reeks of bad design. Should it be a sub-par option? Of course, but the best model to copy would be the Shadow Priest model, rather than Frost Mage. Put dots up as much as possible (sometimes just VT, sometimes VT and SW:P), keep Replenishment rolling with Mind Blast, and use Mind Sear as filler. The mana cost on Hurricane is soooo punishing that using it as filler between dotting isn't an option, and Moonfire *ahem* Sunfire Spam is superior filler. Sunfire Spam, imho, is as anti-fun as repeated channeling. Combine with the vast comparative inadequacy of of AoE in Lunar Eclipse (non-eclipse should be worse, clearly, but either ought to be semi-viable...), it's just an overly wrought AoE system which needs streamlining.

Agreed. Honestly, I HATE the freaking dot dance we have to do right now. I've always kept dots up, even back when people used to tell me I was stupid to use IS, I chose to anyway. It was a running joke in my raid of "And yes, Mydruid'sname, you can use starfall now." (back when it could aggro an entire room if you weren't careful). because for some inexplicable reason I love starfall. And I love my treants. And anytime I'm allowed to use them I do. I'm not claiming either make genius DPS or anything, I'm just saying I love them. And I used to love roots when it was a long lasting buff. It was my good luck buff. The whole raid got it even those who REALLY shouldn't be being hit. Because, 75% of the time when I bothered to buff the whole raid with thorns, we'd down the boss and the tanks would keep aggro and none of the DPS would get hit. It was like some psychological mind game. It also got to the point in my raid where I'd be A) Ordered to yell at the boss to die before we engaged them, and B) Buff thorns on everybody. They were the good luck charms of our raid. The change to thorns was one of those irrationally sad moments for me. I couldn't deny they were stronger, but damn, I miss the weaker, longer lasting ones that you could talent higher and also talent your treants. It was never the best raid talent but it was the one my raid leader couldn't get me to drop. I'd find ways to up my DPS and still keep that talent and they'd mutter and leave me be. ;)

I only raided Karazhan in BC and all through Wrath. So I can't say I'm the most experienced raider on the block by ANY means. I'm in a small guild, we couldn't get enough to form raids, and people aren't as willing to pug in raiders anymore. So I don't get to, and yes, that makes me sad because I honestly had fun doing the most I could for my pug raid that stuck together from the first week of Wrath's release (We were the only 80s around and did Nax for the hell of it after Wintergrasp one day, and realized bosses were actually dying, and that's how it all started). But I've never been so....-stressed- to play a boomkin before. Stressed out from a hard encounter, sure. Stressed because my DPS wasn't high enough and frustrated with myself, yes. But stressed out from my own classes mechanics? I just wasn't. I knew Boomkins had pitfalls. But I loved being one too much to EVER go feral or tree or not play my druid and bring something else instead. But now all this talk of 'gaming' eclipse and AOE requiring you to be Solar...while some may and do find this sort of mini-game fun, it's just not to me. I didn't mind being alert (back when innervates were always called for from the balance druid, and you were expected to drop your battle rez at a minute's notice without any other class having one, and if you were decent, you'd throw a few small heals and at least a MOTW on the person you just rezzed) and this was on top of trying to stay decent on DPS and pay attention to the strategy of the fight...usually after spending a frustrating amount of time moving around the room to even get in range of the person you were just ordered to rezz on vent... and that was fun to me.

But I don't boomkin so I can stay only on one side of a stupid meter and screw around to get back to that side, and position mushrooms to drop during a fight after we were told how mobile we'd be. And yes, some people may find the dropping of the mushrooms to be really easy and why the heck can't we all be so amazing as to be able to drop them in a split second... but it STILL is clumsy to me. Do I do it? As much as I can. I DO see how strong they are and acknowledge they need to be used. Do I think they're stupid? Not all together. They're kinda a cute idea and they clearly work. Do I hate that they're so mandatory and our single easy AOE spell costs an insane amount of mana? Yes. Yes I do hate that. Hurricane should never be a "Oh, just hurricane 'em" spell like it was. But there was some sort of awesome power that was felt with the druid summoning forth a hurricane. Now it's like we are just in bad moods and we have personal rain clouds and we dumped water on the enemy in terms of damage... and the bad mood is because that dumping water just killed our mana.

*mutters* I so wish we could edit. Clearly, when I said roots in terms of a buff, I meant thorns. Not roots. Because those were never a buff cast on other players... Ignoring NG that we could choose to activate on ourselves to root something that hit us.

@Anteia
You win. You've pretty much summarized how I feel about boomkining.
The class's mechanics actually stress me out.
DROP SHROOMS, BOOM, DOT, TAB TAR, DOT, TAB TAR, DOT, DROP SHROOMS, BOOM, DOT DOT DOT DOT DOT, MOVE MOVE MOVE MOVE, SHROOMS SHROOMS SHROOMS
...and now back to single target and my DPS is back down in the crapper.

Seriously, I'm spazzing out firing off all these instant shots. Cast time allows you to think somewhat, but this whole thing of every GCD FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE GO GO GO GO GO rotation just stresses me out and is not fun.

I've recently been alting around on a pally and warlock, I dunno if it's just me but the mechanics just seem so much tighter. But my boomchicken is my first character and I'd love to keep him that way...just stressing me out.