unless you are trying an exotic pruning scheme you should never remove leaves as long as they're healthy. instead of cutting, gently pull a dying/dead leaf, if it comes off with the tug, great, otherwise leave it be as it's still helping the plant grow.
as long as there is some green, the leaf is helping the rest of the plant grow. it's a different matter if you want to chop lower nodes on a plant to direct growth toward the top colas - that's one of the few cases where pruning makes sense.
only remove leaves that are atleast fifty percent damaged, otherwise they are still healthy and providing the plant with sugars and other good stuff that it uses it to grow with.. the leaves are what powers the plant, not the buds or anything else for that matter... leaves are like lil solar panels that hang out in the air and collect all the light it can which it than uses to convert to sugars and other stuffs via photosynthesis.. removing the leaves removes the plants abilty to collect light which it uses to convert to sugars and thus the plant stops thriving..