I wanna play this DLC but I need to do the first one. I just can’t get myself to fight swarms at level 1 for no trophies on PS5 lmao.
Technically you can play it without going through the first part. But you'll miss parts of the story that way.
I really do wonder if they didn't make a huge mistake tying the new DLC to the most controversial DLC out there.
The story had to be finished. To make sure it will appeal to people who aren't interested in the side stories, we've added a big meaty chunk of mechanical content and some Commander content as well for chapter V.
It's more the "low point-buy stealth gameplay" that people object to, not the side story itself.
It has its audience. For the rest, there are 15 new archetypes and a quest and a dungeon in Act V :)
And don't forget the gargantuan bugfix list (400-ish fixes), new mythic feats, updates to VFX of spells and assassin rework that comes together with it.