In my experience the average player is a lot more experienced and harder to play against than let's say a month ago. Think about it: how tough it might be for a new player to get into online games. He probably has no or only weak favor items. Games without favor items are rare and many players wouldn't stay in a custom game without them. (Actually one of my builds kinda depends on a certain favor item...) 
The AI won't help you much to learn how to play against a human opponent. There are no tutorial missions or 'testing areas' where he can just learn or test his new build without getting stomped.
Unless a new player has some experience with similar games, is talented or willing to 'tank' a bunch of lost games he will have a hard time to get into multiplayer without a clan or replays.
Two things would be helpful: Replays where you can see all the gear, abilities and stuff and a training area where you can play without game records, ranking or game lists (but with replays!!!). It would also help if you could see the number of games and experience a player has to form equally matched teams. Experienced players would be able to play 1v2s, 2v3s or something.
Demigod is a pure multiplayer game and it's success depends on the size of the community. Support new players to learn the gameplay and the community will grow. Leave them stranded and on their own...
