I have a question..

My first character ever is Arcanist and my build is pure Aether Ray and I got this item lately,

see image here: http://imgur.com/t053GrA

does +42% aether damage affect my AAR skill damage or is it only effective if you do a melee attack (if its a sword,mace,etc)?

and another thing, already got imp and wraith and has plans to get the widow devotion, but it has a requirement for the eldritch which i still lack, do i have to spend some devotion points for those constellations under eldritch to reach widow requirement?

+% Damage is global and affects all sources of the base damage type.

already got imp and wraith and has plans to get the widow devotion, but it has a requirement for the eldritch which i still lack, do i have to spend some devotion points for those constellations under eldritch to reach widow requirement?
Yup, sounds like you’d need another three Eldritch affinity.