My hunters about to hit 80, and was just wondering how haste stacks up? For wars, its probably our worst stat, but I see some hunters stacking it. Is it roughly as good as crit? Worth stocking up on?

Also, when I have on viper, will I regen faster if I'm mashing steady shot, or just auto shotting? Hunters at 77 and I'm still not sure which is faster :)

Haste is for Marks/Surv, BM does not require haste because Serpent's Swiftness 5/5 gives you 20% ranged attack speed.

Mash steady to regen.

Haste is marginally useful for BM hunters, and very helpful for MM and Surv. The only thing that it reduces is the steady shot cast time. However, SS enacts the 1.5 sec GCD, so getting SS below that point is pointless. Once that happens, all you're buffing is auto shot.

For BM, you SS is already below 1.5 secs just from talents, so no more has is required. For MM/Surv, something over 500 haste is required. Many spreadsheets value haste higher than everything except hit (until capped). However, there is a lot of passive haste, and in my experience human efficiency + lag will almost always keep you from taking advantage of the tenths of a second haste will shave off your SS.

That's what I would never gem/enchant for it, but I like it on my gear nonetheless.

TLDR - don't ever stack it, take it as it comes as there are many other more useful stats.

Thanks, very helpfull answers

Haste is exceptionally useful for all three MM specs. If your on a steady rotation, your dps would look something like 40% auto shot, 30% steady, and 30% everything else. Steady and Auto are you two main shots and currently make up the majority of your dps. Haste affects both of these shots. Now, for BM your steady shot is already capped at 1.5 so haste wont do much for that. But it will continue to increase the dps of your auto shot.

Autoshot, regardless of what people say, is your bread and butter shot. It will most always be the highest dps of all your shots by far. The most shots you get off with Auto the better you will be. However, like others said, gemming haste can probably be avoided since most all gear comes with it. However, dont disregard gear with haste over something like armor pen.

Another thing not mentions here is the trade off of haste vs crit/RAP. When you hit 80, you want to try and get your crit to ~27% as MM or SV with your AP ~3000. Then get your hit capped for raiding, then do haste last. The crit, AP, & +hit will get you up to and above the 2000 minimum DPS that many guilds require for their heroics and raids. After that you, you will get much better gear that will maintain your AP and crit while improving your haste. if you have the talent that gives 3% to hit you only need 167 hit rating to be hit capped. and that is pretty easy in lvl 80 gear.

EDIT: I agree with above poster. Armor Penetration is POINTLESS nest to other stats. Completely avoid it in favor of haste and crit.

Haste is not "marginally" useful or exceptionally useful for BM Hunters... it's a wasted stat for them as they're already at or below the cap for Steady Shot with Serpent's Swiftness.

This is taken from Elitist Jerks regarding Haste (read the bolded part):

Haste Rating
Haste grants the most DPS per Rating when it is still decreasing the casting time of Steady Shot down to 1.5s (equal to the global cooldown). At this point, you cannot fire SS any faster, so the value of haste lowers. A 2.0s SS fires in 1.739s with the 15% haste of your quiver/ammo pouch. This is what we use at the baseline, with a goal of 1.5s Steady Shot. That means we need 15.942% more haste.
The only talent we have to increase our base haste rating is Serpent's Swiftness, at 5/5 points gives 20% haste. Thus, the BM's Steady Shot (with 5/5 Serpent Swiftness) is already below the 1.5s cast time that we need. Thus: Beast Master hunters need no Haste on their gear to reach the 1.5s Steady Shot minimum threshold.
For everyone else, we need to look at: Haste translates at 32.78998947 rating to 1%.

I = Haste Rating from Items

T = Haste Percent from Talents

P = Haste Percent from Items (quiver / ammo pouch)



Steady Shot Speed = 2.0 / ((1+(I/100)/32.78998947)*(1+(T/100))*(1+(P/100)))

So, that's 522.738 Haste Rating Needed for a hunter to reach the SS < GCD threshold.
Haste grants the most DPS per Rating when it is still decreasing the casting time of Steady Shot down to 1.5s (equal to the global cooldown). At this point, you cannot fire SS any faster, so the value of haste lowers. A 2.0s SS fires in 1.739s with the 15% haste of your quiver/ammo pouch. This is what we use at the baseline, with a goal of 1.5s Steady Shot. That means we need 15.942% more haste.
The only talent we have to increase our base haste rating is Serpent's Swiftness, at 5/5 points gives 20% haste. Thus, the BM's Steady Shot (with 5/5 Serpent Swiftness) is already below the 1.5s cast time that we need. Thus: Beast Master hunters need no Haste on their gear to reach the 1.5s Steady Shot minimum threshold.
For everyone else, we need to look at: Haste translates at 32.78998947 rating to 1%.

I = Haste Rating from Items
T = Haste Percent from Talents
P = Haste Percent from Items (quiver / ammo pouch)

Steady Shot Speed = 2.0 / ((1+(I/100)/32.78998947)*(1+(T/100))*(1+(P/100)))

So, that's 522.738 Haste Rating Needed for a hunter to reach the SS < GCD threshold.