"Improved Armor Master" talent gives you +1 defense to any armor with 2 soak.

What if the said armor has 2 soak only against energy weapon?

Does that mean they don't get the benefits of the talent?

Or do they only get that +1 defense against energy weapons?

I'd say for simplicity base it on the core stat block, no the special rules.

So something like the Catch Vest has a soak of 2 on the block and a special rule that causes it to be 1 against non energy attacks. Good to go.

By comparison a Flak Vest has a Soak of 1 on the block and a special rule that gives it +1 vs blast quality inflicted damage. No go.

The alternative is to allow/disallow vs damage type (kinda weird) or to just specify what is and isn't armor for the purposes of the talent (Laminate vs. Catch Vest)

I'm with Ghostofman on this one. Go by it's soak. A +1 soak vs specific damage/attacks isn't how much soak the armour has, it's a bonus on top of its base soak.

Go off of what the armour table says and you can't go wrong!

-EF

I agree with both Ghostofman and EldritchFire. Use the "base" stat. In my campaigns I allow it to stack with Superior (an armour with base +1 soak and then +1 more for Superior triggers Armour Master) but I wouldn't let it affect things like Catch Vest and Flak Vest.