Make a Man-Champion or Dwarf-Champion
This will net you addition Might from the start, which increases your melee damage. Might is the opposite of Agility, which increases your ranged damage. Also, Race of Man gets a giant (~3000) self heal at high level. They also get a direct bonus to Morale. But now with today's 15k tanks and with your average player at 7k health, 3k isn't really that much.
However, Dwarf-Champions also get Might bonus. They also get a vitality bonus, which may also help you if you're trying to go for a balanced build. And, at high levels, through racial traits dwarves get Endurance of Stone, which adds 50% to Fire, Shadow, and Common migitations. This means that 1/2 of all Fire, Shadow, and Common will be asorbed you. Also at high levels, they get Dwarf-endurance, which gives a bonus to Vitality.
The most important stats for a build like yours are Might and Vitality
Vitality will increase your Maximum Morale (health). For every point of Vitality you have, you get three points of Morale. For instance, if you have 100 vitality, you will get 300 extra morale, in addition to your base morale (which depends on class/race) and other morale bonuses.
Might will increase your melee damage. Edit: Vitality also adds to your common migitation, and all other migitations (however, the other migitations will not receive as much bonus from just vitality)
Get an armor set when you're at a high level
One of these will help: http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Comparison_of_Champion_Armour_Sets
Deathstorm's Armor is seemingly for Survivability. Blade of the West armor seems to be for Damage. You might want to earn both of them and then use whichever one you'll be using.
However, as said above in a comment, you can't have the absolute maximum health and the absolute maximum DPS at the same time. To improve DPS, try the Fervor stance. However, this will burn down your health faster. To improve survivability, try the Glory stance. However, this will increase Threat generation, decrease damage output, and increase your defense ratings. This seems to be the "Tank" stance for Champions.
I don't think I've covered everything, so tell me if there's something I should add.
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.
Best Answer
Those are raid bosses, I believe, for level 50 content 24-man raids.
You can also buy those items off of Skirmish Vendors (Curiousity, I think), which was the easiest way for me. They're expensive, but worth it.