The nice thing about the 180 Item grind is that you only have to do it once. It gets skipped on all subsequent relics. That's the only nice thing about it. There's nothing to it but gritting your teeth and powering through.

The step after it—the actual final step—is much less tedious, only requiring 5 or so runs of the Dalriada or 8 runs of Delubrum Reginae.