DLC Bundle Sale Recommendations

[Gun]

I've heard from plenty of others that DLC is practically necessary to properly play the game. I see right now that there are sales for different DLC packs, but coming from a casual perspective, the full DLC pack which is like $143 seems too much even as it is on sale. Are there specific DLCs that long time players consider mandatory to get the best experience? Or is base game fine on content, and I should wait for a potentially bigger sale?

[Forblaze]

Just get the subscription. It will take years before paying the price of the subscription equals the cost of buying the DLC, even on sale.

Personally, I've purchased all of the DLC. But that was over the course of nearly a decade. If you're just now coming into the game, it's just too many individual purchases for a game you don't even know if you'll still be playing a year down the line. The subscription is Paradox's solution for this exact thing, and it does it at a very compelling price point.

[HappySack]

Only Utopia is considered mandatory, everything else varies depending on who you ask.

The only ones to avoid are the ones that give you the least value or actively make the game worse (Astral Planes and Cosmic Storms respectively).