[I added a summary in the 3rd post in this thread]

First off, this is about official chain watch duty, not about just being part of a chain.

To start, you're going to want to be familiar with how chaining works, so read some of the guides and the wiki on that, and be part of one or preferably a few chains before volunteering for chain watch, and pay attention to how the leaders and other chain watchers handle it. If at all possible, it's also nice if your first time being on chain watch duty you're not the only person on chain watch (which is good in general - ideally, you'd want multiple people on chain watch duty at any given time, but, this is not a guide to creating a chain watch schedule, and, sometimes you might be the only person officially on chain watch duty during a given time slot for w/e reason).

THE BASICS of being on chain watch duty are pretty simple. In order for the chain to survive, the timer can't get down to zero, so, as the one being on chain watch, it's your job to make a hit before it reaches that point if nobody else is making hits. Different factions might have different rules about when to hit while on chain watch, but you need some buffer in case things go awry - 2 min left on the timer should work most of the time though, as it'd give you plenty of time to med out of the hospital and kill a target.

In order to be able to do this, you can do the math on how much E you need to be able to have access to for your watch. E.g. an hour of chain watch alone hitting at the 2 min mark would cost a maximum of 500E per hour (maximum 20 hits per hour times 25E per hit). Realistically, it's unlikely you'd be the only person making hits during that time unless you're in a tiny faction, but, it wouldn't hurt to have access to that much E by having some FHCs lying around in case you need them (and not having much booster CD at the start of your watch). I needed to make on average only about 1 hit per hour that I was on chain watch during WP's 25k, but, some times of the day are busier than others, some factions are different from others, etc. If you have the same time slot every day, you can get a feel for how many hits you might realistically have to make, though keep in mind weekends can be different from week days. Avoid taking xanax during chain watch since you don't want to OD during chain watch, though with a quick revive and an FHC/cans/refill it should be possible to continue on if that does happen.

Aside from needing E, it's also good to go into chain watch with not too much med CD in case you get attacked a lot, and to have plenty of blood bags or other medical supplies so you can med out of the hospital. It's also possible to pay revivers to get you out of the hospital, though that would be the more expensive route to take. It's good to have a tab open of a medical faction so you can contact them quickly if you need them.

Have a target list, and have some tabs open with easy targets that you can kill in 1-2 hits - you don't want to have to hit someone 20 times to kill them if the timer somehow gets down to the last few seconds. Getting the fair fight bonus for respect is great for most of chaining, but during chain watch duty, making sure the chain doesn't die is more important than getting the most respect possible. Also, the easy-peasy targets aren't going to kill your med CD while you're on watch, so that's good too.

To help with paying attention to the timer, DoctorN has an alarm you can set to beep at you if the timer gets down to a certain time. You can set it for any time, or even multiple times. Of course, if beeps drive you nuts, you can just stare at the timer the entire time. Watching people make hits is kind of fun, and an hour can fly by pretty quickly that way (one time I didn't even realize for several minutes that my shift was over, haha). Also, put your chain watch duty on your calendar and set an alarm for it on your phone or w/e so you don't forget to show up on time. 

 

 

MISCELLANEOUS

BONUS HITS are something you might have to deal with while on chain watch duty as well. Different factions might have different policies on who gets to make the bonus hits, or whether to hold at all for bonus hits, so know your faction's policies. For small bonuses, you might want to hold 5-10 hits before the bonus depending on how fast the chain is going (write "HOLD at xxx" a little in advance, and "HOLD" at the holding number in faction chat), and ask who still needs the 10 (or 100) respect in a single hit merit (know the multipliers so you know how much respect can be gained from the bonuses), and try to give that hit to someone deserving while also trying to make sure they know how to get a good fair fight bonus. In the meantime, also ask who has E and can take the chain from the holding number up to one hit before the bonus, and then let the person assigned the bonus hit make the bonus. Roughly the same thing applies to bigger bonus hits except maybe holding at 15 before, though hits like the 25k hit will likely be planned out earlier rather than assigned in the moment, and will likely be group hits. It's good to have some target you can defeat fairly easily but that gets you a decent multiplier in case there is a bonus hit during your watch and no-one else around to take it, but, in long chains, there won't be bonus hits during most watches.

FACTION CHAT can be fun, but don't let it distract you. If necessary, at times you might want to shush people and tell them to only talk about things related to the chain (like right before a bonus hit). It's also useful to post the occasional reminder about using the daily refill, the winter/spring/summer/fall newsletter E, point out retals that need to be made, ask people if they can make their hits more slowly if it's very quiet, and if the chain watch slot after yours is empty for whatever reason, to try to get someone to volunteer for that slot. Personally, I asked about half an hour before my shift was over if anyone could take the empty slot, and, if nobody volunteered then, again about 5-10 min before my shift was over. That worked every time there had been an open slot (and gives enough time to explain the basics of chain watch to your volunteer if they've never been on chain watch before), but if not, I'd have moved on to asking who still had E, and to asking them to try to go through it as slow as possible and to stay as long as possible. Same if an emergency happens during your watch and you need to be away from keyboard for a few minutes - try to get someone to watch it for you by asking in faction chat.

AT THE END OF YOUR SHIFT it's good to make sure that the next person/people on duty is/are actually present and paying attention. For that same reason, it's good if you volunteer for a time slot where you don't have to leave right the moment your shift is over, plus, you can spend some time after your shift is over burning through your leftover E trying to get some good fair fights.

TRY TO BE INVISIBLE starting a few days before the chain starts. Not making enemies in the forums or in global/trade/etc chat is a good idea in general, and especially while chaining, but if you're on chain watch it's even more important to not be permabountied. Don't list huge dollar amounts of stuff in your bazaar or on the points market either - you don't want to get buymugged while on watch. It's great if you can get everyone outside of your faction to just completely forget that you exist at all.  This also means it's good to avoid hitting active players, especially onliners, during or shortly before your watch. 

ATTACKS ON YOUR FACTION should usually just be retalled by some player who's strong enough - know if there are any factions you're supposed to ignore, and if necessary, remind people in faction chat that they need to hosp on retals or not hit certain factions/people. If someone or an entire faction repeatedly attacks your onliners, it might make sense to ask them why they're doing that, though realistically, that is best left to faction leadership or at least to a high level long-time player - unless you're very high level, it's likely best to not give away that you're in charge of watching the chain at a certain time, as that would basically be telling people to target you to take you out of commission. The exact best course of action when your faction is under assault is too faction and person specific that it's beyond this guide - the only commonality would be to encourage all your faction members to be online as much as possible to help out.

SITE DOWN TIME can cause your chain to break. If the downtime was unexpected or scheduled after your chain was started, make a report right away in the Bugs & Issues forum explaining the situation. Your chain might get restored.

IN CONCLUSION, make sure you're comfy, with E, little booster/med CD, something to drink and snacks or w/e, and enjoy your chain watch. I was super nervous before my first chain watch, and that turned out to be completely unnecessary. Even the one night I got attacked 3 times during my watch was no big deal at all (obviously, if your faction comes under heavy assault, you're going to need all the people you can get to help out - but, that would be true even if you're not a newbie). Overall, chain watch is surprisingly doable even with low stats, so don't hesitate, and do sign up to help out with chain watch - your faction will thank you.

PS: Special tip for Trip: buy some eye drops!