The goal is to provide tested and validated methods for establishing and maintaining an enhanced modded Skyrim.

From the STEP wiki: 'STEP is a collaborative project with input from the modding community, technical volunteers, and project administrators.

Skyrim Total Enhancement Project (STEP) by TheCompiler and numerous other contributors.

And yes, it includes LOOT to help with load order issues. You can also save different arrangements of mods under different profiles and filter your saved games so they won't show up under profiles other than what they were running under. The big difference with Mod Organizer is that it doesn't touch your Skyrim data files, but instead builds a 'virtual' data directory whenever you launch the game - no more reinstalling Skyrim to try and fix something.

An alternative to the Nexus Mod Manager that is only slightly harder to use.

Formerly came in separate mods for vanilla and each DLC, but were later packaged into a single Legendary Edition patch for easier maintenance. These patches try to ensure as much as possible that your game will run smoothly.

Skyrim in general is a buggy game on the best of days, and some of these can be quite game breaking, or extremely jarring and irritating to 100+ hour players.

The Unofficial Patches by Unofficial Patch Project Team.

Links: Here for the original, here for Special Edition.

Requires SKSE note Skyrim Script Extender, not to be confused with Skyrim Special Edition (which is also required for around 70% of the mods here anyway).

And of course the most useful thing for efficient looters, the weight/value ratio, so you don't have to calculate it in your head.

It adds some very useful stuff to the UI, such as 'Read/Unread' markers for books, organizing the quick-select menu and even a mod controller that lets you change the settings on compatible mods without leaving the game.

Even if you use a Gamepad/Controller, this is still highly recommended.

Skyrim's UI was obviously designed with consoles in mind this changes the inventory and magic menu to a format that is easier to access using a keyboard and mouse.

These mods are practically required for every installation of Skyrim, to the point that we believe that Bethesda should simply package these mods along with new copies of the game.

Most essential skyrim mods