path integration is obviously a basic tool. Hence basic properties of path integration are also fundamental.
The first question is: over which paths does an integrand have the same value? this is basic for computing integrals by simplifying the path.
The fundamental result is that if the differential form you are integrating is "closed", i.e. satisfies the mixed partials condition, [i.e. the "curl" is zero], then the the integral is the same over any two "homotopic" paths, i.e. paths that are deformable continuously into each other.
all holomorphic functions and hence all polynomials f(z), define closed one forms f(z)dz.
The hypothesis of rouche's "theorem" [more of a remark] guarantees existence of an obvious homotopy along straight lines between the two paths.
More generally, the integral of a closed form is the same along any two 'homologous" paths, which is the commutative version of homotopy. e.g. any 1 form, closed or not, has integral zero over the path A*B *A^-1 *B^-1, even when this path is not contractible.
Geometrically, and intuitively, two paths are homologous when their "difference" forms the boundary of some surface
verbum sapienti: Learning this "homotopy" technique for computing path integrals will do you much more good in the long run, and short run, than solving the trivial problem at hand.
remark: the correspondence between integrals of closed forms and boundary properties of loops, gives rise to "de rham" cohomology. I.e. a plane region has "holes" in it, if and only if there exist closed differential one forms with non zero integrals around some closed path in the region.
thus the analytic invariant: {closed diff one forms}/{forms of type df}, measure the geometry - topology of the region.