Guild Wars 2

I think one of the biggest issues with the current state of venoms is that all the stacks of venom go off immediately, and most of them being some form of condition, this allows the recipient of the venom to cleanse the whole skill in 1 condition removal.

If venoms worked on the same premise as mantras, charge the skill, then press it each time you want to release one attack. This would allow the condition to be spread over time, or in the case of the healing venom allow for some sustain instead of a burst heal (if it hits). Thoughts?

Yes, venoms are bad, but making them exactly like mantras doesn’t seem to be the best way either.

They should build up in stacks, and upon reaching a certain number of them, apply an effect to the enemy. It would be not only counterable (an enemy could see stacks), but also a buff to pistol auto attack.

A channeled active would give either a few seconds of application with every strike, without need of building up stacks, or a special ,,overcharged" effect with next strike.

Venoms are working as intended. If they applied all stacks at once, you couldn’t apply them to multiple foes. If they worked like mantras, you couldn’t easily apply multiple stacks in a burst. If they had to charge up, you couldn’t control the timing of infliction.

There are some solutions to your issue in place, but they’re situational:

1. If your opponent is removing multiple conditions at once, exhaust each venom before activating the next. Stagger them out, so they can’t all be stripped away at once. This works great with Leeching Venoms, which procs only once per hit, not once per hit per venom.
2. If the problem is your opponent cleansing all stacks of one condition right after application, use slow attacks and take a moment to dodge something—let both you and the enemy breathe after applying the first stack or two. Hopefully, this will taunt them into cleansing while you still have some ammo left. This approach can be a nasty surprise when bursting several venoms for a Venomous Strength spike.
3. Where appropriate, spread your conditions between multiple foes. Shortbow makes this easy, but you can always change targets.
4. It can also help to have non-venom cover conditions at your disposal, such as bleeding, cripple or weakness.

@Gulesave
First of all, reread what I wrote in last paragraph.
Second, your tips regarding venoms don’t work in practice. They give almost no reward for high risk you must pay, making them not worth using.