Started this as a reply to Pallai's comment, not sure if I just ended up saying much the same thing using different words.
Apart from those rare people who have played a lot of MMOs, can digest the forums and figure out how the (limited) documentation and complex rulesets affect the game, everyone else will learn the old-fashioned way - by doing, and by making mistakes.
I think that setting realistic expectations in these guides is as important as providing a good build. Give people a build that they won't regret at endgame (at least I was never tempted by Eschew Ingredients), and that is not terribly gear or skill dependant. Most importantly, it should be flexible enough to support multiple playstyles by swapping gear and enhancements, so that people can see for themselves that DDO is not about "know your roles", or entirely limited to playing just one of healer-mage-tank-DPS. Tell them what you are doing, and let them go out and start making the normal mistakes that everyone else does.
I abandoned my first few characters. It worked well for me to try out a lot of different classes and playstyles up to level 4-6, and get a feel for what class I enjoyed and what type of playstyle suited me. I then took a decent (sub-par, but not terrible) build to level up to 20 which fit that playstyle, and have adapted it since with enhancements. After capping a cleric and monk, and playing a bard, a wizard and a clonk to levels 16-18, I now have a better idea of what I want to do with my cleric (offensive casting, evasion, decent reflex saves, some UMD, and as much melee as I can afford with the leftover points).
For clerics, I'd be torn between recommending a warpriest or an offensive caster to a newbie. The warpriest makes low levels almost idiot-proof, is very solo friendly, and can still healbot / pike to 20 to unlock 32 point builds, or TR. I think offensive casting is more important than melee later on though.
The problem in this game is that levels 1-6 are so terribly different from levels 15-20, and new players don't see how their uber toon that rips up the market is going to badly suck by Gianthold, to say nothing of Amrath. The difference in BAB, strength, feats, and enhancements don't matter in lower levels - even a wizard can hit stuff reliably in Korthos with a quarterstaff. DCs and spell pen are hugely important at high levels, unless you're a fan of seeing blue hexagons with your implosion or blade barrier, but you might not appreciate that fact on a level 3 cleric.
Sword and board rocks from Korthos to the market, but not much further. I think I once tried to convince some noob on /advice that Die Hard was a useless feat once traps start doing 200 points of damage and trash hit for 50, but their harbor experience said otherwise. I gave up.
For me, I sadly didn't really see the benefits of things forum regulars talk about until it was too late for some characters. It wasn't until I took my bard into Shroud that it really sunk in that UMD=fire shield, and that I wanted it for as many characters as could afford it, rather than viewing UMD as an expensive luxury. It wasn't until I felt the speed of a capped monk or permahasted wizard and bard that I started putting striders on every character.
I do believe that the difficulty and expense of respeccing is a big turn-off for people. I can get to level 6 a lot faster now than on my first character, but for a new player, the idea of having to restart might represent a few weeks worth of their gaming time. Apart from the single free feat exchange (which they are just as likely to screw up), builds in DDO are too easy to wreck and too costly to fix.
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