You should always attempt to install the latest version; there's no reason to go through each upgrade package, unless you're coming from pre-7.3, but the latest upgrade package should even work there.
The patch files where posted for users who, for whatever reason, needed to upgrade to fix a security hole which do not have access to the full (latest) code and are simply patched files for the security patch (and are not a full release). If you are running 7.4.1 your patch would be the 7.4.1p2 file.
The upgrade instructions are on the wiki at
Upgrade Guide, these are the recommended upgrade instructions, deviating from them may result in your forums not working.
If you are not comfortable with preforming an upgrade, there are several of us who offer such services.