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Thanks Dragonborn. I have decided not to use an ENB. My previous system handled ENB well, but with the latest hardware out there, I think ENB only enhances the personal taste of an environment.

177 views - no answer - TL;DR seems to be the answer. Sorry for the rambling post!

1968. No, not the year. That is the total number of hours played on Skyrim without any mods. Yes, I know, I've been busy playing and not paying attention to the community. I'll take the selfish tag and all of the backend jokes that go with it. When Special Edition arrived, I gave it a chance only to find out that most of the mods wouldn't work due to the very nature the SSE infrastructure. SKSE, SKYUI, and MCM will not be present; even after Ian and his team tried to keep up with the new version of SSE, it's a never ending task. SSE is too young and stupid to be played, regardless of the 64bit benefit. So I loaded Skyrim, and started to play a bit. I decided to go over to Nexus and look at some of the favorite mods that I enjoy playing. Of course there are the staples after SKSE: SKYUI, Random Alternate Start (or Alternate Start - Live Another Life), Character Creation Overhaul, etc. I decided to use Mod Organizer and follow Gamer Poets installation guide. So I installed it and then headed over to STEP wiki. I started at the ENB section and that is where I got myself into trouble. You see, the guide told to Extract d3d9.dll and enbhost.exe from the "WrapperVersion" folder inside the ENB archive (image) into .../skyrim/. This is incorrect as you have to include the enblocal.ini. I wondered why my game wouldn't load. Now it loads great without any issues. I haven't run it yet after ENBoost ajustments, but I have faith. Another issue I ran into is with Phinix ENB - while that does support a lot of other helpers and weathers (CoT, ESS, NLA, TS, AoS), it requires specific installations that would have to be done outside Mod Organizer. I"m not certain that is a good idea. So now that I got my ENB Series setup and it works. What should I do next follow the SR:LE guide, install Vividian ENB (or Phinix ENB - need to make a separate instance if that's possible. I think Vividian would be just fine, but I like the features of Phinix. Does Vividian use SMAA? I would appreciate some direction and advice as I try to get back to playing Skyirm (I spent more time modding SSE than playing the game! I don't want to do that for OldRim!) Strat

I always want more from my character, so I start over. After 2000 hours of playing Skyrim, finishing the main quest only once, and using a total of two races (Khajit and Wood Elf), I find myself working the quests too fast losing the essence of slow playing and role playing. For example, as soon as I finish The Golden Claw and Bleak Falls Barrow, I make my way to Ivarstead. From there I visit the Greybeards, get the next task from them, and then head to Riften. I'm a thief in this build and will eventually get to the Dark Brotherhood. I follow this approach as it is a role playing experience. I don't go in quest order, nor do I fast travel as it takes away from some really good encounters. For games like Skyrim, I like to explore and take each quest as an overall, but individual experience. For instance, Honningbrew Mead I would complete that quest alone with my bow as it gives me a good opportunity to sneak and get some good kill shots. I don't know if I will reach 80th level, and I've only used the Legendary option one time. For some skills, I don't see the need to do so. However, Legendary gives you the ability to switch your characters direction - a thief transforms into a coded Warrior, etc. And with the many builds out there on the Internet, you can guarantee that using Legendary is much better than having to start over.