About the progression:
Please note that there are 2 first pathways to decide, either single or two-handed weapons.
You should choose single-handed weapons most when you are hunting in places where you are blocking only 1 or 2 creatures at most or if the best single-handed weapon for your level surpass the power of the two-handed weapon (this needs to be taken into account mostly after level 200, when you'll start choosing which element would be better on your hunt)
Also note that, from level 150 on, almost all weapons are either dropped by boss-only or in quests, so the prices and the difficulty to buy may vary a lot depending on which server you're playing
Last, but not least, I made a tier-list taking into account that some clubs are almost impossible to get, so I discarded those options and took the most common ones.
Level 8: Morning star
Level 15: Life preserver
Level 20: Furry Club
Level 25: Diamond sceptre (if 1-hand) or Brutetamer's Staff (if 2-hand)
Level 30: Sapphire hammer (if 1-hand) or Spiked Squelcher (if 2-hand)
Level 35: Shadow sceptre (if 1-hand)
Level 40: Amber Staff (if 2-hand)
Level 48: Deepling Squelcher (must-have item, since it's better than any single-handed weapon until level 60 and has approximately same atk but higher defense than two-handed ones until level 60)
Level 60: Moohtant Cudgel (if 2-hand)
Level 65: Onyx flail (if 1-hand)
Level 75: Blessed Sceptre (if 1-hand) or Arcane Staff (if 2-hand)
Level 90: Ornate Mace (if 1-hand)
Level 120: Mycological Mace (if 1-hand)
Level 150: Maimer (if 1-hand) or Jungle Flail (if 2-hand)
Level 200: Mace of Destruction (if 1-hand) or Hammer of Destruction (if 2-hand)
Level 220: Cobra Club (when fighting creatures that are weak or neutral to fire) or Mortal Mace (when fighting creatures that are weak or neutral to death)
Level 230: Resizer (if 2-hand and fighting creatures that are weak or neutral to ice)
Level 270: Lion Hammer (if 1-hand and fighting creatures that are weak or neutral to earth) or Eldritch Warmace (if 2-hand and fighting creatures that are weak or neutral to fire)
Level 300: Falcon Mace (if 1-hand and fighting creatures that are weak or neutral to energy)
Level 400: Soulcrusher (if 1-hand and fighting creatures that are weak or neutral to ice) or Soulmaimer (if 2-hand and fighting creatures that are weak or neutral to energy)
Now, talking about imbues:
To choose whether or not you'll imbue your weapon must take into account the following questions:
1) Can you afford spending waste no matter what?
If so, you should always imbue.
2) If not, the next question is whether the hunt you are can make a profit on 20h superior than the cost. If so, you should imbue.
If you decide to imbue, the three best imbues for weapons are, generally, critical, void and vampirism, being vampirism the first one by far and void and critical being variably depending on the hunt. Hunts where you spend lots of mana and can't keep recovering just from pots void'll make more valuable. Hunts where you are far stabilized and just want to xp better, critical should be your choice. And, of course, if possible, make the 3 imbues (not many weapons have those slots, so rarely this will be ok)
There isn't a certain level which you should or not imbue, but based on my experience, you won't be in need of imbues a lot before level 80~100, but still it can helps you make a hunt last longer or even save your life on some situations