It's not. But my players seem to think otherwise.

My weekly group has been playing D&D for about 2 years now and they still run into the same issue everytime we start a new campaign: they don't know how to create characters. Scroll down below for a tl;dr

I noticed this when we started a new side-campaign yesterday. I'm usually (read: always) the DM for this group but for once I got to be on the side of the players again. I created my character a month before the first session and although I hate to admit it, also created characters for them just in case they didn't finish them in time. They have a reputation for doing everything last minute. I gave it a rest and focused on my own campaign.

Then one week before the first session, I reminded everyone that the session was coming up and they should make their characters. They promised they would. I wasn't surprised when I asked again the evening before the session and none of them was finished; only one of them had started on it. I tried leaving it in the hands of the DM but he assumed everything would turn out to be alright. Why? Because they promised it would be.

So a few hours before the game, the real problem surfaces: They don't fully understand the steps required to build a 1st level character, let alone a 6th level. I once again reminded them of the pages in the Player's Handbook that offer a step by step approach to rolling up a character. Suddenly everyone was rolling strikers, but that's a different problem all together.

Two of the players admitted to not understanding somethings on their character sheets (mainly the defenses) and I helped a third creating a character with the Character Builder.

Our group is known for having a lot of one-off adventures and canceled campaigns so they've created characters more than once. We even had a few days where we got together and created characters, even once doing it step by step as a group (That was 3.5, but we've been playing 4e for about a year now).

Back when we started playing 4e, I bought the rulebooks (store had a 3 for the price of one thing going on) and started rolling up characters with the only player (who is the DM for this thing) using the step by step in the PHB and it all went without a hitch.

So my question is: is this a normal thing around players, or are the players in my group just 'D&D stupid'?

tl;dr My players can't create characters on their own, despite playing for 2 years now. Does this happen more often, or are my players special?

Also, any tips from the playground on handling problems such as these?