Can you please give an example of how it (selenium 2.53) is more stable than the latest 3.12 version?
Also, Firebug/Firepath features are built into firefox now I believe. You can also use Chrome Developer tools.
Lastly, Why do you want to use xpath? You should only need to use xpath for going UP the DOM, or for finding elements by text. In these two cases, it is probably best to ask the dev team to add better id's or classes or something unique to the elements so you can find them easier.