Imperials were nerfed in Nexus, yes, but class-split-skilling returns with a LOT more classes, which more than makes up for losing a bit of their raw power with some of their combinations. Their ultimate weapon is also available fairly early on compared to most classes in Nexus. With them, I ran a buffer-medic, a mixed debuffer, and a full-tank. Just the two damage dealers was sufficient: Imperials are BEASTS...

In 3... That's so many moons ago. But I do remember my going-through-the-game party, because it was an RP party. I had a Prince and a Princess (both Shogun subclass), a Wildling pet caretaker, a Zodiac/Arbalest chaperone, and a Buccanneer/Hoplite who captain'd our ship. The Royals shared healing duty while using Blitz Command to force the entire team to attack. I had to use some items to make up for not even subclassing into Monk, but items exist to be used. My area kill was the Wildling using the venomfly... If they could be poisoned. Otherwise, brute force.

I would level up using the Ship quest battles, and use encounter-down items in the mazes, so mana really wasn't an issue, as sufficient blitz commands takes down basically anything. These were royal siblings on a hired adventure experience, they weren't there to muck about in the mud with common encounters! (If I needed more money, I had a team of 5 high-level farmers).