What ToA stand for ?

ToA stands for Trials of Atlantis. It was DAoC 2nd paid expansion. The expansion adds in great looking zones, mobs that drop lots of coins, new quests, 10 "Master Levels" and extremely powerful items called artifacts. ToA, when launched, was confusing and most of what you had to do was Raid content. ToA is wrongly blamed for many things and rightly for some things. What ToA did was bring out the difference between many groups of players and polarized the DAoC community. For example, it brought about a noticeable difference between more casual players and 'hardcore' players. At the launch of ToA it took 50+ in game days played to reach level 50 and then you had to spend another 50+ days doing ToA. So for those that could play 14 hours a day, they had a huge advantage over those who didn't. Another issue are those who just wanted to RvR and were upset at the PvE content. The addition of essentially mandatory PvE content in order to RvR again greatly upset many people. The year before ToA Mythic made a commitment to player made goods being the best in the game. However, Mythic went back on this commitment with ToA when artifacts and many drops were added. This did huge destructive damage to the crafter community and the economy as a whole.

The response to ToA was slow to come but it finally had come. DAoC launched new servers without ToA content. Further, the last patch (1.81) addressed many of the issues with ToA. Essentially ToA has become a lot quicker to do. This has helped make it so that more people can get ToA items they need to compete.

In 1.89 ToA has been redesigned around groups.  Almost every encounter can be done by a single group of less.  Drops that used to happen from encounters that were not related to artificats or ML have been placed on new mobs that you can farm.  These are elementals and Affritis. 

The first tier of encounters, designed for solo players or duos (depending on class).  The second tier, designed for small groups (3-6 players), is made up of the basic Afrit.  The third tier, designed for full groups, is the Master Afrit. He waits safely outside the trial planes, using his bound servants to fight and steal for him. Note that camping the same spot you find one in isn't generally the best idea, as they may not always show themselves in the same place.  When afrits from the new encounters are slain, they will drop portions of their essence along with their master level and artifact loot. Five of these essences can be combined into the reforming energies of an afrit and then traded to the "Trogo Zontanos Mageia" for loot from the ML/artifact encounter monster of your choosing.

In addition you can now use bountry points (earned from RvR kills) to purchase ML step credits and Scrolls.  In theory, this allows someone to avoid doing ToA and earn the abilties from RvR. 

So while not back to pre-ToA play style on the regular servers, changes are certainly for the better and those who do not remember the 'good ole days' should find the content easy to do and many will find it enjoyable as well.