I've done two straight up visuals and they both actually went really well. I fly a lot smoother when I'm not chasing the flight director around. First was a side step from an ILS in OSN. Once we started the transition I asked the captain to turn off my FD because it's kind of hard to ignore. The other one the captain thought I was relying on the FD going into ANC so he turned it off. ILS to a visual at about 1000ft and he was surprised when the needles didn't move.
If I struggle with anything, it's getting the right rotation rate on takeoff. I always seem to think about a tail strike in the middle of it and my rate ends up a little too slow, leading to being a bit above V2 on climb out.