[rgoins]

I'm new to shadowrun and I'm running an elven mystic adept. My question is when using a spell with a range of touch do ranks in skills like unarmed combat for example help you or does that matter at all.

[Squirrel]

Involuntary targets require a successful melee attack under the "touch-only attack" rules found on p.187 and p.281 of the CRB.
You can default on unarmed combat, so you technically do not need the skill, but it helps you succeed a lot.

[8-bit]

A touch spell first requires you to successfully pull off a Touch-Only attack on your target. Unarmed Combat + Agility + 2 (Touch Only) [Physical Limit]. Once you have landed the touch attack, you can deliver your spell with the normal Spellcasting + Magic [Force] test.

[Glyph]

In previous editions, it was explicitly stated that the unarmed attack to deliver the touch spell, and the touch spell itself, counted as one complex action, not two.  SR5 does not have that rule, so you might want to ask your GM how he handles them.  My personal opinion is that it is probably something they intended but just forgot to include, so I would house rule it takes one complex action.  If your GM makes it take two separate complex actions, touch spells will be all but useless on a non-stationary target.  In either case, though, you need the unarmed combat skill.  Unarmed combat is an opposed dice contest where enemies roll two Attributes for passive defense against you, so you definitely need some points in the actual skill to have any chance at all.

[Whiskeyjack]

If you're thinking of taking the direct touch-range spells, I would suggest just not doing that.

[Tarislar]

As WJ said, its really hard to build a character that does Touch Spells well, there just ends up being more efficient ways to accomplish the same end.

[Xenon]

You only need to take an unarmed test to land a touch attack (+2 dice and succeed on tie) if your opponent is actually trying to avoid getting touched by you.

There is no need to take an opposed unarmed combat test when for example using a touch only spell on the unaware guy in front of you as you share an elevator, when you bump into each other on the subway or when you pass each other on a busy street in the sprawl.... 

Same as you don't need to take an opposed unarmed combat test when you use palming to pickpocket an unaware mark

(You also don't need to take an opposed unarmed combat test to touch a target that currently surprised)