advices regarding void knight / lich

[VISIONARY]

Hey guys,

i already have completed the story as mage / sorcerer once and it was quite fun. i think i got the basic mechanics.

but now I wanted to do own spell based builds as void knight and / or lich. after reading the skills while planning the build i have noticed the following:
each mastery skill (for lich "reaper" and void knight "erasing strike) are based on melee which quite irritates me. But i wanted focus mainly on spell based dmg and i'm afraid to do this now.

i have 2 questions:

1. how important is the mastery skill for void knight or lich-class? i thought it's something like the "ultimate skill" for that specific class. Or can a build without them also be powerful?

2. is the melee aspect of the mastery classes really important? i think that's quite important due to the gear. i basically need to decide if i focus the gear on spell dmg or melee dmg / melee magic dmg. a mixture doesn't seem to make sense.


thank you for answers!

[ling.speed]

Lich can be played as a ranged caster or melee caster. The latter uses reaper form. But there are lich builds that do not use reaper at all.

Havent played Void knight much but while it's pretty much melee champ it does not have to play like melee. For example shield/hammer throw plays more like a spell. Best would be to check out some videos on what kind of playstyle is possible.
For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9fAwSPUrRo (check out whole boardman21 channel for more builds)