set party effects and their sound effects off. Best change I ever made.
then when I realized that there were beneficial circle thingies to stand in occasionally (had a white mage ask me why I wasn't standing in their circle, and my reply was "wait, what circle???") I set it to "show limited" with their help

good ol sprout learning.
good times

EDIT: also finding out that you can set two #98 and #99 macros to the control sticks on controller. Hurray for sprint and mount on R3 and L3. woooo