Ok, about the patching when the server comes back online.
Every time that it has come back online, I have had to run the patcher. Otherwise it will not show me an active server connection inside the game. Its not actually patching, not really. If I understand it correctly from the files I have looked at all it is doing is updating the server information files. Without this update to let the game see the proper server connection information, The game cannot connect as the old information(eg: IP, Port, ect..) is wrong.
Im not saying that that is why I have to patch, it may be something totally different, but I will say that every time I patch, the information inside the server info files changes, even if only ever so slightly. But it does change. Therefore, IMO whenever you connect again, just run patcher.bat. Doesnt take long. Saves alot of QQing.