Since coming back to Marvel Heroes (2026), I really wanted to play Captain America.  However, he is incredibly tough to play because his dps is so much lower than other heroes.  His tankiness is way up there, though.  With deflect increases and abilities proccing, I'm sitting around 65-70% damage reduction while in combat.

It took me ~20 attempts to get past the cosmic trial because of the dps check, messing around with various talents and abilities.  After clearing, I was able to start gearing up and finally have found something that kind of works for me.  Here are a few things I've done with this build:

• Heroic Strike is the core basic melee attack combined with the talent.  You can just hold down heroic strike and it pops off extra hits with shield strike.  It also increases the dps of shield bash, which is great.
• Deflect is a big part of Captain America's defense, so I went with the talent 'Impenetrable' for a little extra defense passively while I dps.  This also makes the ability pop automatically if my health goes too low.
• Coordinated Strikes was a nice addition in damage to Torqued Shield Throw.  I wanted AOE damage but didn't want to focus on ranged damage stats.  Using Airborne Assault or Star Spangled Banner both increase the damage to Torqued Shield Throw.  This ranged attack also triggers your neck piece, which increases Fighting Stat and dps overall.
• The serum abilities get a boost from the next talent, so I struggled with the right choice.  I went with Stabilized Serum so I could ignore the serum and just spam powers for more damage and reduced cooldowns.
• The final talent impacts Patriotic Taunt.  I went with Vigilance for rapid healing.  I don't think you can go wrong with any of the options but since each of the talents benefit your allies in range, I felt like the quick healing could help on raid bosses.  Having this almost completely eliminates the need to use med kits.

Cap isn't the strongest dps in the hero roster.  But, he does give group buffs and crowd control, especially because of my legendary choice of Shield of Perseus.  He is tanky; he will dps and survive.  

He is also incredibly fun.  If you choose to go with Captain America, I hope some of this helps you build him into a playable hero.

Post build updates: I've updated a few things.  You can keep using what I have listed above and it works fine, but these updates will help increase dps while keeping survivability - - - 

Slot 1 to "Fragment of Twilight," which significantly increased my dps with the same survivability.  

Slot 3 to  "Coat of the Skull" - Adds Brutal Strike Rate and Damage, while also adding % damage against various mob types/tiers.

Outside of small tweaks to min/max the artifacts, I think this is where I'll keep the build because it's working in cosmic farms and raids.