If you weren't trained in pain and suffering by Demon's Souls, Dark Souls should be really challenging. But Really, the more you play it, the more cautious you'll learn to be. Dark Souls is a little more beginner friendly. I have a couple of friends who never made it out of 1-1 back in Demon's.
So I upgraded the Great Scythe to Fire+10 , and holy shit. People are right, that running R1 is f'ing deadly. After I made it, I threw on the hunter ring and managed to win a 1v2 in the forest. I charged in hitting the phantom with the running R1 and then finished him with a quick R2. Then I just kept hitting the host with run/dodge R1s. I seemed to recover too quickly for him to do anything but turtle. With a bit of luck, I won the next couple invasions too.
Is it easier to just farm Souvenirs of Reprisal in NG+? I'm trying to collect as many miracles/pyros as I can before NG+ and it looks like you need rank 2 in the Darkmoon covenant for Darkmoon Blade. I've not managed to invade anyone yet with the Blue Eye Orb, and the ring has had about a 5-10min wait only to get ambushed as soon as I spawn in. But I picked up 2 Souvenirs from the harpy things back in the Painted World, I believe.
Co-Oping at the bed of Chaos has proven too annoying for me. Can't blame the hosts, I didn't know what I was doing there either my first time. Either the host gets knocked off, you get knocked off, or the host can't see your health in time to flask if you're about to be hit twice.