Venom in high drain applications have been known to fail, and their lipo's leave much to be desired. However in the low amp draw tank application, batteries that would fail in other RC's will survive. My BL applications can have 300 amp spikes and 25-50 amp constant draws easily, so high quality batteries and equipment is a must. You have more leeway with lower amp draw applications though.

As for Venom, while still not on par with the top guys out there, they have made major strides on improving their products and QC. Venom has some very nice new and coming products for the market and I for one am watching them closely with eager anticipation. It's kind of like Hyundai, while I still would not buy their cars yet, they are clearly leaps and bounds better than their offerings 20 years ago.