What mindset changes are helpful to get the most out of LOTRO?

I'll try and take these on one bullet at a time

• Blitz to maximum level because endgame is where it's at.

No. Take your time. Most of the content is in the leveling. Do the Epic quests for the story. Once you hit endgame, make another character and do different quests to get to the end, since you probably missed at least 60% of the content your first time through.

• Once at maximum level it's all about gear, gear, gear.

Yes, to a small extent. Most people get a bit bored at max level, because there isn't much in the way of horizontal development.

• Instance groups must be 1 tank, 1 healer, 3 dps.

Generally, yes, but LOTRO is fairly flexible. There are 6 slots for a normal instance groups, but many 3-man instances are here and more are coming. It's not unheard of to see 2 tanks and a DPS take on a few of these. Also, there are a few classes that break the mold of the Tank/Heal/DPS trifecta, so combinations can be more creative.

• Professions are relatively useless (in terms of pve/pvp performance) except for the perks at or near maximum skill.

Sadly, yes. Cook and Scholar are two notable exceptions, since they can make popular consumables. Other than that, quest gear is usually much better.

• Get every achievement possible (is there a LOTRO equivalent to achievements?)

In LOTRO, there are Deeds. Hundreds! (Thousands?) Some examples include: Getting the highest reputation possible with all elf factions, killing 240 lava worms, or finding the bottom of a well the "hard way." It would take you quite a while to complete all them, but it seems like completionists have fun with it.

• etc... feel free to add your own and provide how LOTRO is different

For the most part, PvP and Endgame are weak in LOTRO. This is more than made up for by the depth of the story in quests, especially the Epic Quest line. If you're a die-hard-endgamer, there are still raids and such available, but it's not quite the hardcore community that WoW is.

For a great percentage of the time, crafted items beat quest reward items. Crafting is essential to the game, it's community and kinships.

I'm going to address your questions one-by-one:

• Reach End Game Because That Is Where Everything Is

The endgame in LOTRO has said to be weak. What you do want to do is get to level 20 (max level is 75, soon wil be 85) as fast as you can. Note that going up levels in LOTRO is slower than in WoW. At 20, you unlock The Great Barows, your first Full-Fellowship instance, and Skirmishes. Once you get there, you can get a nice armor set that will last you until you unlock the next instance: Garth Aragwen, or you get the Evendim armor set.

• Groups must have 1 tank, 1 healer, 3 DPS

Again, no. First, LOTRO has group sizes of 6. And, that isn't the ideal group makeup. I usually like to have 1 Tank, 2 Healers, 1 DPS (me), 2 special (burgular, who starts powerful group attacks/heals and either another DPS or Captain/Loremaster. Loremaster does CC, and Captain Buffs and Heals)

• Crafting is useless

Exact opposite. Once you are out of the beginning instance, you can get crafting. You can then immediately craft almost anything, from Armor to Weapons to Jewlerry to Food to Scrolls-That-Give-Nice-Effects and Class Items.

In LOTRO, as soon as you get a vocation, which is made of 3 professions, you get the standard lvl 7 recipes (unless you make Heavy Armor, in which case you get lvl 15 armor recipes, but the shield starts at 7). In order to craft these items, you must obtain certain components, like Ore and Wood. These must be gathered using one of the three professions you get in your vocation. You get these from around the landscape and looting enemies. However, you must first equip a certain tool, depending on what you are trying to get. For Ore, you need a mining-axe. For wood, you need a wood-axe. When you first get your profession, you get Inferior tools. You can buy Normal quality tools from the specific Crafting Vendor. If you have Metalsmith profession, you can use that to make better tools, which let you harvest ore faster, and get a higher Critical Success Chance. (Critted items have better dmg/stats). You can go onto Lotro-Wiki.com to get more information.

At near max level, Metalsmithing gets a little useless, as you get Class Armor Sets. But Legendary Items can be crafted.

• Grab Every Achievement

Yes! You should do this! But unfortunately it gets really boring to do this. LOTRO has Deeds, not Achievements. Deeds give you FREE Turbine Points (which are used to buy premium items) and Virtues, which give you a stat boost, except they are pretty useless. Also, you get a Title, which shows off that you killed 30 trolls, etc.

• Other Comments

If you have more questions, leave a comment or check LOTRO-Wiki.com. Or, ask the Forums or here. I frequently check the lord-of-the-rings-online tag.

Another thing I would say is that if you haven't picked a class, make a Elf-Hunter. In LOTRO each of the races get special stat boosts. Elves get +agility, which gives you +hit-chance, +crit_chance, +ranged-damage, but unfortunately Elves get -regeneration rates from a loss of Fate. Which doesn't really affect you. The Good outnumbers the bad.

Also Elves get a power-boost skill at a high level, which is useful when they are in a group on a long fight, as Hunters really burn down the Power bar.