There is pretty much no reason to go through the relic weapon grind unless you are a casual player with A LOT of extra time on hand. Currently the relic weapon line will take somewhere around 120+ hrs to complete all sections. The reward for that is currently an ilvl125 weapon (likely ilvl135 once 2.5 hits)

Here are the comparable weapons and the time required to get them:

Soldiery weapon - ilvl110 - syrcus tower - 1300 soldiery - roughly 10hours
Shiva weapon - ilvl115 - shiva ex - roughly 10 hours but requires a decent party at this time. Soldiery weapon is a bit easier
Poetics Weapon - ilvl130 - crystal tower final raid (24 man in 2.5) - 1300 poetics - roughly 20 hours but requires 3 week minimum due to lockouts/poetics cap