Question Relic/Atma weap

I keep starting and stopping this game so while I'm level 60 I'm clueless with a lot of the game.

My question is do I need to upgrade my zenith weapon to be competitive?

From what I gather, I'm up to the Up in arms quest and I need to either trade in a zodiac weapon (which I don't have yet) or grind crystals in the HW areas.

Second question is which is faster, upgrade zenith to zodiac or grind the crystals?

If there's something I'm missing let me know.

At work atm but will read replies tonight, any info would be appreciated.

Unless you want it for glamour, there is no reason to bother upgrading your level 50 Relic to a Zodiac. It's quicker to just grind out the crystals for the Anima.

Even after all the huge nerfs to the Zodiac questline in 3.0, it's still a somewhat obnoxious grind. Don't put yourself through that except for glamour or just if you feel like it. It has no current gameplay relevance.