In the past I had indicated that Guild Wars 2 is free to download and free to play (no monthly subscription fee.) This is true but when was start talking about mounts (what this article is about) this is not part of the free base game. This is part of the second expansion pack and users must pay a one time fee in order to unlock all this new content. When you consider that the expansion is something like $40 (one time) it isn't such a bad deal when you consider most MMO's charge $10 to $20 a month subscription.
Anyway, moving on the the Jackal
The Jackal is the 4th mount you will encounter while playing the Crystal Desert maps. The location you will find it in is pretty straight-foward, but it is the first mount that the story will not take you directly to it - you'll have to figure that out on your own.
The Jackal makes i possible for your characters to access the sand portals, which will teleport you to distant areas, some of which contain treasures that you can not access by any other means.
These portals can be a bit of a gamble, because unless you have already done it, there isn't much indication on the map as to where the other end of the portal might be. There could be a bunch of baddies on the other end. However, if that does happen and you are quick enough, simply turn around and portal back from whence you came.
Overall, you don't really see a lot of people running around on their jackals because unless you are portal jumping the Raptor is faster, and the 'Bunny" has much better ability to go over other terrain. The jackal does have the ability to teleport through enemies, but it is a little buggy in the sense that if you are teleporting you can get hung up on a rock or a shrubbery or something dumb like that.
I would say that most people use the Jackal to access the secret areas and then likely don't really ever use it that often in the future, which is a shame because it looks friggin awesome.
Thanks to WoodenPotatoes for this magnificent video - one of many on his channel
