Enchanting loop breaks at Legendary—how do you keep scaling gear relevant?

I'm on my third playthrough (PC, vanilla AE) and I hit Legendary difficulty at level 35 with a melee build. My enchanted gear was solid up through Adept, but now everything feels like wet paper even with maxed Smithing and decent enchantments. I know the loop exists—better gear, better alchemy, better enchantments—but I can't figure out where I'm actually falling off. Am I supposed to be grinding out that restoration alchemy exploit to stay competitive, or is there a legit crafting path I'm missing that doesn't feel like a second job?

You're not falling off because of a gap in the crafting loop—you're hitting the wall where Legendary difficulty actually demands you engage with the mechanics instead of just out-gearing everything. The restoration exploit works, yeah, but it's tedious and honestly breaks the game worse than just playing smart.

Here's the real issue: at level 35 on Legendary, your enchantments are fine, but you need to stack multiple layers of mitigation. One enchanted chest piece isn't enough anymore. You need the perks that actually matter—the ones that reduce incoming damage, not just boost your offense. Grab the Light Armor perks that reduce damage taken (there's one that staggers attackers, one that gives you damage reduction when you're moving). If you're melee, the blocking tree has perks that reflect damage back. Smithing-wise, make sure you're hitting the "matching set" perks so your whole armor loadout scales together, not just your weapon.

Also—and this is the thing people miss—you might just be undergeared for Legendary at 35. That's not crazy low, but if you're running around in Daedric or Ebony when you could be crafting Dragonbone or Daedric with proper perks, you're leaving damage on the table. Same with enchantments: are you doing two effects per piece, or just one? Double enchanting (after you unlock the perk) changes the math significantly.

What's your current armor and weapon setup? And are you using any mods that might be affecting enemy scaling?