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Overview

I absolutely loved the base game. I played through the base game and both of The Ancient Gods (TAG) DLCs on the hardest (Nightmare) difficulty. This DLC starts where the first game left off, staring the player with their full kit/arsenal fully upgraded, minus the Crucible Sword - which was destroyed at the end of the main game. This DLC has 3 large levels, 2 slayer gates, new demons to fight, and a boss battle at the end of the 3rd level. The player has access to one additional rune slot specifically to use for the new type of runes called "support runes" which can be unlocked through the 3 levels.

Difficulty

For the base game and TAG 2, Nightmare was the perfect difficulty to challenge me, while still being enjoyable. But the the difficulty for TAG 1 is amped up much higher than that of the base game, that I wish I would have swallowed my pride and played it one difficulty easier (on Ultra-violence). If I were to rank how hard the DLCs are from a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the most difficult, it would be something like this:
Base Game: 4/5
TAG 1: 6/5
TAG 1 Slayer gates: 7/5
TAG 2: 5/5
TAG 2 optional escalation wave: 5.5/5

Playtime

The base game has 13 missions, which (on Nightmare difficulty) took me about 26-30 hours to beat, for an average of 1-3 hours per mission - with plenty of deaths. TAG 1 should have only taken 2-3 hours per mission, but because of the difficulty, it took me 17-18 hours to beat. I believe I spent 4-5 hours just trying to beat the Slayer gate on the last level. By comparison, TAG 2 also only has 3 levels and only took me about 6-7 hours (about 2-3 hours per mission) to complete.

What Makes This DLC so Hard Compared to the Base Game and TAG 2?

First off, you are without the Crucible Sword, which allowed you to basically "delete" the hardest/most troublesome demons from an encounter. To be honest, it was too good of an item and it was probably a good choice for the sword not to make a return. However, the problem is the combat encounters/arena fights are simply MUCH harder. Yeah, you get access to one support rune that you wouldn't have in the base game, but the gain in strength from this one rune does not outweigh the loss of the Crucible Sword - nor does it counter the sharp difficulty increase of the encounters.
Two of the new demon types are invulnerable to all damage outside of specific attack windows (like the infamous axe-wielding Marauder). One is an upgraded version of the Mayker Drones that are immune to all damage except when using a heavy attack (which does massive damage and can slow the player), but dies in one hit to a headshot during the small window of being invulnerable. The other is the spirit, which possesses another type of demon (usually a Heavy or Super Heavy) and provides them with a substantial buff. I estimate that the possessed demon takes 4x as much damage to kill as it would normally, it is far faster, more aggressive, more resistance, hits harder, and immune to the freeze grenade. Once the possessed demon is killed, you have a narrow window where you have to use a fully charged microwave beam of the plasma rifle to permanently kill it (its immune to all other attacks) before it possess another demon and you have to restart the whole process all over. It happened more than once where I was right about to kill the spirit when I ran out of plasma ammo or got knocked away by another demon before the beam fully charged, only to have the spirit possess another demon.
And sometimes, the encounters themselves are just wildly stacked against you. On the FIRST LEVEL of this DLC, you will have to fight two Marauders at the same time. I thinks I spent well over an hour trying to keep myself the perfect distance between the two at the same time in order to kite and kill them. And this happens had the beginning of an arena encounter. Thankfully the game has a check point right after you beat them. However, that's nothing compared to the Slayer Gate on the last level. The waves for that gate are as follows:
1: Archvile x2
2: Hell Knight + the New Blood Mayker* (Note: if you kill the Mayker first, the 3rd wave spawns right away)
3. Blood Mayker + Dread Knight x2 + Doom Hunter x2
4. a spirit possessed Marauder + Carcass x2-3 (the ones that make the blue shield walls)
This Slayer Gate was beyond grueling to complete. They are optional side-content that allows you to unlock an one of the 3 support runes (but you can only have one equipped, so getting the others just gives you more options and doesn't necessarily make you "stronger, so feel free to skip this gate). I only had 1 BFG shot before I went into this arena and I saved it for the 4th wave to clear the Carcasses making the shields so I can just focus on the possessed Marauder. I wish I had a second shot so I could have used it on wave 3. The increased damage, speed, and aggression of the possessed Marauder was a nightmare to face after getting through those earlier waves.
Now TAG 2 DLC arguably does have harder encounters than this DLC; however, you are given an new item in that DLC which increases the Player's strength, survivability, and utility that allows you the ability to handle the increased difficulty in a challenging, but fun way. It's a same the Devs didn't think of this item to include in this first DLC because it was desperately needed. I suspect the Devs got rid of the Crucible Sword because it was (rightfully) too good, but made the mistake of increasing the difficulty without giving the player an adequate way to survive that increased difficulty. This is fixed in TAG 2, but for TAG 1 - you are simply gimped and forced to struggle with your crappy hand. This is why I recommend - for you own sanity and enjoyment - turn down the difficulty at least one level compared to what you played the base game at. Once you get to TAG 2, you can feel free to bump it back up again.