Use Unrevoked 3 does all the work for you. Roots the phone and flashes the latest ClockworkMod recovery. Thats what I used for mine.
I also used z4root off of the market place to root my wife's hero. This only roots the phone and does not flash a custom recovery. After rooted go to market place, download rom manager and it will flash the latest ClockworkMod recovery.
Honestly, I know I'm new to this and I ended up doing things the easy and short way and not learning all the adb commands and all. It really depends on what you are wanting to do with the phone IMO. If you are just wanting to get apps for root like free wifi tether, get rid of bloatware, and maybe flash a custom rom then I don't see the point of learning all of that.