Zwave direct associations only involve those two devices, you can even unplug the hub and they will still work. They won’t have any affect one way, or the other on your routines created in the smartthings app. 
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- with the move to edge, it seems you can now control direct associations via the smart things app. However I don’t see how to find the network ID’s from the app. Do I still need to go online to find these???
I’m not sure what you mean by “control, direct associations“ do you mean set up zwave direct associations? Some edge drivers allow you to do this, but they are normally the custom ones created by the community, I don’t think any of the stock edge drivers allow you to do so.
Anyway, as far as getting the device IDs, the easiest way is through the community created “API browser plus.“ or “simple device viewer.” See the following link for this and more afterGroovy questions: