Forgive as I don't have the source on me, but Yoshi did say the relics will continue aside from the appearance of the HW class of relics.

What remains to be seen is if you can flag weapons "just as good" as relics by doing something simple to start their first leg.

Why would you spend the immense amount of time catching up 2.0 Relic when you can spend 1/8th that time tiering into your first HW relic which will probably have a floor ilvl or 145 or something?

This answers your question, but immediately creates a worry of almost the same nature I am afraid.