My advice is to get SmartBuff and set a key to "buffing". I use Ctrl-` personally. Then, whenever I need to buff I just hit that key a bunch of times. Check the box for "self first", so they don't waste mana trying to buff the same toon.

It works great, and you can get Thorns back

I run a Pally/2Mage/Lock/Priest - and I would be toast without it.