Is hasten needed for an claw/wp brute?
In most cases, no. With Combat Jumping and Weave you can get up to 4 LoTG recharge as well as some from Crushing Impacts and purples if you have the money. The great part about claws is you get a Melee, ranged, PBAOE and TAOE all in one set. Very handy if you decide to focus on recharge rather than defense.
Even without purples you can still get a decent attack chain with claws. Now if you want to go nuts and drop pylons in a just a few min and kill AVs without blinking, then yea you will want hasten.
On the bright side, once I19 comes out and we get the fitness pool as an inherent, you may be able to do both.
The above sayes is all.