Most Free-to-Play games allow you to patch prior to logging in, but most subscription titles still require a login first. While Blizzard titles may patch on the old launcher, they are moving to a new one that will require you to log in first.

Sony Online Entertainment games ALL require a login prior to play.

With all that said, I understand the frustration, but their content delivery network is fairly robust. This last patch took less than ten minutes to grab.