Your choice of weapons explains a lot. There is indeed nothing like those in the game.
And i don't think highly of SL1 gameplays. I will not deny it takes quite an amount skill , but on the other hand it's more about memorizing patterns than anything else, although there are some annoying random unfair attacks here and there. And you limit yourself much more than with any other build, so you miss on all the fun you could have had. With me, once the fun is gone, even challenging repetition becomes too dull to continue.
SO yeah, that would not have given you any benefit in adapting to DS2 anyway.
oh and Four Kings after NG+2 are just painful, doable but not really fun. i don't venture beyond Ng+3 on any character, i make a new one instead. In all Souls games.
and Souls games should have stayed on playstation. Would be bad for From money wise, but i think they would have been far more creative than under NamcoBandai and their politics. THis is what our troll got right, there are money-grabbing people around Souls games, but it's not FROM.