Question for the people who don't dislike the 2nd relic step

[Nezerius]

I'm surprised people are even complaining about the 2nd step. A reminder of what the 2nd steps have been so far.

ARR: Buy 3 Thavnairian Mists.
HW: Complete 10 dungeons with the weapon equipped.
SB: Do some NMs (Fates in Eureka) for Protean Crystals and then beat Pazuzu (is he up?).
ShB: Do HW FATEs (or Fates and Critical engagements in the 3 parts of 1st Bozja zone, you insane person) for 10 of 3 different kinds of drops.

If you look at that, ARR and HW, which Yoshi-P said this would be the equivalent grind of, are insanely easy for 2nd step. It's the 3rd step you all should fear...for that was the Atma and Unidentified Grinds. Remember, Atma was not guaranteed originally from FATEs. Unidentified had to be gotten from the ARR and HW Tribe quests, and Alex SAVAGE token drops, and I think you could also get some from the what was then current uncapped tomestones originally. You needed 10 of 4 different kinds of items. In other words, massive grinds.

The whole "Saga of the Zodiac Weapons" thing wasn't really talked about until patch 2.2, so it's a bit odd for you to consider the 2.0 relics (which were carried over from 1.0) to be considered part of the grind.

ARR: The second quest of the Zodiac Saga was the book grind.
HW: The second quest of the Anima Weapon was indeed completing 10 dungeons, but don't forget that this quest step was in between two grindy ones (Atma-like farm, and the Unidentified step), both released at the same time.
SB: Needed 1300 Protean Crystals and 3 Pazuzu Feathers. You also needed to be elemental level 19 to be eligible for the feather drops. Although it's debatable if this is even the 2nd step, considering the 1st step is simply a reward from doing your job quest.
ShB: It required 20 of each type of memories, not 10. Although they had a 100% drop rate with a gold rating, so I'll agree that this step was relatively easy.

Also minor correction, the tokens were from Alexander normal, not savage.

My personal issue with the EW 2nd step, is that they didn't even bother to dress it up as anything new. Just copied over the same 1500 tomestone cost from the previous step, which just feels kinda lazy. Really makes me think the relic is just an afterthought, this time around.