We've got a new patch but near as I can tell all that has been done is to remove the Christmas Event and the Rudolphs. In typical Acclaim fashion it took them a couple of tries to get it right.

When I logged back in after the initial maintenance I was still using Patch 101. I managed to kill the Golden Armor Demon on the Liaodong map and then walked back to my grinding spot on the Ice Map, picking up golden coins as I went. While chatting I found out that the Christmas decorations were gone from Hefei, but in a true what the hell moment, I still had Rudolphs at my grinding spot. They're fun when you first get them but after a couple of weeks I know I've had enough. It is really rough for the people trying grind and there is a Rudolph there that is not quite matched up to the level of the surrounding mobs.

Anyway, I kept on with the grind and did a little chatting both in league chat and on the IRC channel. We fell into a situation that only Acclaim could arrange. I was in-game on Patch 101 while people coming into the game were downloading the new Patch. It was yet another what the hell moment. I got to a safe spot and went to download the new patch, but no that didn't cure the lingering infection of red noses.

It was about another 30 minutes later that we got another shutdown notice from the in-game mesage box so I ran for that same boss spawn spot, and sure enough once the game came back I had the boss to myself again. I killed him off again, and again walked back to my grind spot collecting golden coins. Back at my spot I only had the usual collection of flesh-eating reindeer, and no more Rudolphs! (Edit: Nope, there are still Rudolph's on the Shi Zhang map...)

So I've had a good day today. I've collected 9 Blood Essences from the Golden Armor Demon, 2 from rolling over blood count on 2 different characters, 1 from a drop, and 5 from collecting golden coins. I even got a black fan as a drop!

How is your day going?

- SpearDriver