@Knoddy: JCoyote's reply summed things up my thoughts nicely. But I do want to reply to this:

3. shield bug- dont know much bout this one, or fixes tbh. it hasnt affected the way i play at all so far.
Actually it HAS, if your like everyone else out their you won't be using spearmen to recive cav charges, or Sword & Sheild units against light cav and as a pinning unit for everything out there. In fact if your normal you won't be using spear or swords any more than you can possibly avoid. That's a BIG diffrence from what fixing the sheild bug will have.