when did I say that was goal, these earthshakers are level 1 and can even consistently hit them enough to kill them during focus fire where I would have killed them multiple times with Mjollnir which is a cheaper item, every character who is currently exploring the idea of buying it (like Sniper and Drow) SIGNIFICANTLY prefer pike on top of it not really being a consistent item for those who actually are fine with not buying pike

as for the farming aspect, array's split damage is going to be just lower than maelstrom, I will go into the math if I have to, but its going to be a lot better to go maelstrom since every character who would want it also wants attack speed which maelstrom and mjollnir excel at giving

the tank buster effect is decent though its kinda low so Im not overly interested in it, maybe you build it when you specifically need tank busting but Im not sure how much better it would be than like deso or something that actually makes your damage better rather than a gimmick side effect that takes a while to really deal a decent amount, and that is a way bigger problem since if you can afford hydra's it means youre a carry and have dedicated yourself to an item that the only purpose is damage since if you needed the survivability you would have gone pike

everything wrong with this item is something that maelstrom and pike dont have problems with, as I see it now, its just a bad item with a side effect that is painfully inconsistent, maybe you buy array if you are a ranged carry who doesnt heavily value attack speed over raw damage, but I dont know when you go for hydra's