You cant go wrong either way.
Do you hover when you play? If so, one of the powers in Stone Mastery requires thay you be on the ground. Of course, Glacier from Ice Control also requires this, but the power isnt up often and is used as a panic button. Therefore you may still choose to hover most of the time.
If you hover often, you may want to avoid Stone Mastery, since its nice AoE damage power requires that you be on the ground.
On the other hand, if you dont hover, and if you are up in melee often, its a perfect complimentary attack since it is a short range area power (Fissure). Also, Stone Mastery has that awesome heal/HP buff, Earth's Embrace.
Ice is great too for having 2 AoEs, a single target attack, and Hibernate. I prefer Ice, myself, though again Stone Mastery is great too.
So, if you like Ice for concept, go for it, its a good choice.
Lewis
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I'll toss my vote in for Stone, just because my 50 controller took it (Mind/TA/Stone)
Fissure is amazing for damage and for the unreliable minion stun. And Seismic Smash will give you a 1 shot if the minion is contained.
you'll love either you choose I imagine, the defense based armor is much nicer than resist based imo.
Enjoy!
UnicyclePeon is right about using Hover and the Stone AP. If you don't Hover, Stone is pretty much tailor made for /Kin both because you need to be in close to use it, and because of the added control it offers.
If you play at range or Hover, then Ice is going to be better.
I don't hover so I'm gonna try the earth ap. I just don't like the stone armor graphic. 
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I don't hover so I'm gonna try the earth ap. I just don't like the stone armor graphic.
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Yeah, the stone armor is butt-ugly unless you plan your costume to accommodate it. My Stone/Fire tank looks OK, but it looks ugly on most characters.
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Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
LOL I don't like either the Ice or the Stone armor graphics, I tend to go for a lot of ranged defense in my IO set bonuses and skip the armors so my costume isn't messed up. Temp Invulnerability and Fire Shield both have pretty low visual impact on the most costumes, so if you really want the armor, I would look at those.
Well if the character costume fits the stone-theme it's ok but on my toon it'll really be ugly.
But I also don't like how the ice armor looks...
As for fire and psy... I don't feel like my character needs statut protection, I don't solo that much and I always carry some BF. And fire has nothing to bring to a /kin, fireball is nice but consume is a waste. It's great on my fire/rad though. 
I think Psi is good for that +Recharge Proc. I've been using it over Fire for quite some time.
Can't it be put in fissure too? Is this proc really worth? 100% +recharge for 5 sec seems good but how often does it proc? Is it per activation or per mob hit?
Hey,
) but earth has an excellent single target attack.
My ice/kin is now level 43 and I took the ice APP but I plan to respec very soon. I'm torn between the ice and the earth APP.
Ice would fit better for concept reasons but earth wouldn't be bad either.
My troller spends a lot of time in melee range so earth embrace is a great panic button but hibernate could fill this role too.
Ice has more Aoe damage with frost breath+ice storm (and a FSed ice storm must be pretty cool
Any opinion would be appreciated !